Inheriting my dad's weapons

[FriboRage]

When I was younger, my dad always took my brother and I to the shooting range. He taught me everything I know about gun safety and responsibility.

He died a few years ago, though, and all of his guns have been sitting upstairs in their cases. A few revolvers, a few pistols, and a rifle. Im going on 26 now, and I'd like to get back out to sharpen up my aim again, and my gf has expressed interest in learning how to use a gun, which I'd love to teach her.

My main question is, what do I need to do to make these guns legal for me to transport and use? They're registered in my dad's name, and I dont want to be caught in a situation where a gun is illegally in the car during a traffic stop.

Thanks in advance!

[Gunsnwater]

Transfer the pistols if your going to carry them. A sheriff can do it for you. For pa father to son both pa residence dad can give them to you no paper. I'm not a lawyer so ask one.

[twency]

When I was younger, my dad always took my brother and I to the shooting range. He taught me everything I know about gun safety and responsibility.

He died a few years ago, though, and all of his guns have been sitting upstairs in their cases. A few revolvers, a few pistols, and a rifle. Im going on 26 now, and I'd like to get back out to sharpen up my aim again, and my gf has expressed interest in learning how to use a gun, which I'd love to teach her.

My main question is, what do I need to do to make these guns legal for me to transport and use? They're registered in my dad's name, and I dont want to be caught in a situation where a gun is illegally in the car during a traffic stop.

Thanks in advance!

Who inherited his estate?

[Exbiker]

If he had said they are your firearms then you own them and no transfer is necessary. If you were named in the will then I would gues it's as if he gifted them and no transfer is necessary. If the executor grants them to you Maybe then you would have to go to a FFL with the authorized executor. Call the family lawyer.

[imashooter2]

Who inherited his estate?

The key question.

[GunLawyer001]

The single most important consideration is that the OP not be a prohibited person. I don't see anything in the post that indicates that he ever bought his own gun, or passed a PICS check. Being prohibited trumps all other transfer issues.

If he's not prohibited, then we'd have to look at the inheritance issues, and then perhaps mother-to-son transfers. Depends on the facts. If the guns have been sitting in dad's house for a few years, that implies that the house wasn't sold, and usually that means that family still lives there. Meaning other heirs at law exist.

Is there a Will? Is there a surviving spouse, or other offspring?

Did dad die in Pennsylvania?

State and federal laws allow for direct interstate transfer of bequests, but all other laws remain in force, including the NFA and various state laws that ban certain weapons. And the categories of firearms prohibition.

I would not play games with "dad gave them to me before he died...but then I left them in the custody of whomever lived in the house, for several years..."

Too many questions to give a solid answer.

[Benanov]

Sales between family members (especially long guns) are fairly easy in PA - handguns get a bit trickier; I have to look that up more carefully.

If you have surviving family members who legally inherited the firearms and understand that they were intended to be "left to you" then you could probably buy them for $1 - assuming the executor of the estate hasn't left you some sort of paper trail. This may require that the person who survives in the house (let's assume your mother) gets a paper trail herself, but probably not necessary.

If you go that route, look up the laws first and get some sort of receipt. Handwritten is fine - but it should include serial numbers. Put it in a safe, as a just-in-case measure.

[Storm88000]

OP, I went through a similar situation a couple of years ago when my father passed. Myself and my brother inherited 6 handguns and 2 long guns. As long as you are of age and legally allowed to posses them, nothing needs to be done at all. In fact, my brother and I ended up keeping 1 handgun each and I was given the task to sell the remaining ones to help cover funeral and other costs. Brought the handguns to a FFL and met up with the buyer, all went very smoothly.

[twency]

OP, I went through a similar situation a couple of years ago when my father passed. Myself and my brother inherited 6 handguns and 2 long guns. As long as you are of age and legally allowed to posses them, nothing needs to be done at all. In fact, my brother and I ended up keeping 1 handgun each and I was given the task to sell the remaining ones to help cover funeral and other costs. Brought the handguns to a FFL and met up with the buyer, all went very smoothly.

We don't know that the OP and/or his brother inherited the estate.

Until he answers the question of who inherited the estate everything else is moot. Someone owns those pistols, and it may not be the OP.

[customloaded]

When I was younger, my dad always took my brother and I to the shooting range. He taught me everything I know about gun safety and responsibility.

He died a few years ago, though, and all of his guns have been sitting upstairs in their cases. A few revolvers, a few pistols, and a rifle. Im going on 26 now, and I'd like to get back out to sharpen up my aim again, and my gf has expressed interest in learning how to use a gun, which I'd love to teach her.

DO NOT TEACH your girlfriend, wife, lover, significant other how to shoot. Any negative statement will be taken personal and an argument with loaded guns on a range will happen. Trust me, thousands of us good intentioned firearm owner boyfriends/husbands have been down this road. DO NOT DO IT!



My main question is, what do I need to do to make these guns legal for me to transport and use?

You need do nothing. If your mother is still alive, they now belong to her and you need only ask her to use them. In fact, you can ask her to give them to you and then they'll be yours. Bing, Bam, Boom, that's it.

Now, as GunLawyer pointed out, there might be some other stuff involved but I'm going on the assumption not so much.




They're registered in my dad's name, and I dont want to be caught in a situation where a gun is illegally in the car during a traffic stop.
Thanks in advance!

There is no way in hell your father registered any gun he ever owned while a resident of Pennsylvania. Gun Registration is specifically prohibited by Pennsylvania State Law.
Further, Federal Law prohibits gun registration by Federal Officials.

Each state can do as they please as it pertains to registering guns. Understand, there are 50 individual states with different laws and the District of Columbia not to mention states that allow local and county governments to regulate guns.

You only need to know, at this point, that there is no such thing and in fact, it is illegal in Pennsylvania for the state or any local government to have a gun registration.

Some clown will come along in a minute and talk about the State Police "SALES REPORT DATABASE" as a defacto registry but at this point, we're keeping with very simple and basic info.

If you choose to "READ" the section of the forum titled "GUN/Firearm laws" you may learn a few things about the laws in PA. Further, if you hang around the forum, you might possibly learn some things if it's not cluttered up with non-sense, as most of the reply's to this thread are, as well as, confusing, not straight forward and of any help to you, a novice. Hell, most of these answers are confusing to me but at least I have half an idea of what they are talking about....sorry for all this clutter being thrown at you.

Best of luck to you,

CL