How long to keep bills of sale???

[Tmygun]

I hope this is the right place to ask this, but anyway, I sold a number of handguns and shipped them to FFLs in various states with a copy of my driver's license. I have kept the copies of the FFLs and wrote on them which gun was sold to them. I always checked out the FFL online to make sure it was being shipped to a legitimate dealer. My question is, how long do I need to keep all of these papers? 5, 10 years? Just keep them forever? Most of the sales were over 5 years ago.
Any input appreciated.

[Tmygun]

I think I did post this in the wrong forum. Mods please move to appropriate forum, please.
Thanks.

[steelerballs]

I do believe that there is no law that says you have to keep the papers. What would happen if you threw them out by mistake?....nothing. However, If it makes you feel better, keep them in a file I usually keep paperwork from BOS in a notebook in my gun room. I don't believe there are any laws that you have to report a lost firearm either.

[bigandy1966]

I'm in the other boat, My bills of sale for guns I own are who knows where. I'm not great at records keeping, and they might have been shitcanned at some point or in some box in the attic. I have serial numbers written down in a book for insurance purposes, but the official hardcopies.... ?

[crffl]

.

I've yet to get rid of any paperwork but I started scanning everything before throwing them into a file cabinet, that way I'll always have a copy in case I ever decide to declutter and get rid of the physical copies. Also makes it easier (for me) to find things if I need to.

.

[mongo]

Please correct me if I am wrong. Is there a law in Pa. that says you must keep a record of firearm sales for twenty years?

[Tmygun]

Please correct me if I am wrong. Is there a law in Pa. that says you must keep a record of firearm sales for twenty years?

This is why I asked, the government keeps doing and saying (or threatening) things to make gun owners feel like criminals, that it now makes you question every little thing you do.

[GunLawyer001]

Please correct me if I am wrong. Is there a law in Pa. that says you must keep a record of firearm sales for twenty years?

No, although FFL's have to keep their 4473's for about that long.

It's about the forward traces. You don't want to be the last definite link in the chain when the music stops. If you sell a gun in 2001, and it's the sole clue at a horrific crime scene in 2017, it seriously saves you money to be able to send the cops along to that gun shop in Toledo; there's no federal database that gets them there otherwise, they have to know which shop it went to before they can go see who the replacement suspect is.

It's just insurance, for you personally. Written evidence is always better than blanket denials. Bad guys always deny everything, but they can't show that the gun left their hands 15 years ago, and have an FFL's bound book corroborate their story.

It's not even cooperating with the evil government in their quest to register all guns; in fact, what you're doing is derailing a wrongful govt investigation of you as the prime suspect in a crime which you clearly did not commit (it was the one-armed man.)

Say what you will about PA's Record of Sale Database, but if you sold a pistol to an FFL 15 years ago (and he sold it to anyone at all within the Commonwealth, which is mostly what FFL's do), the cops can look the gun up and they never even come to your house.

[dev]

I hope this is the right place to ask this, but anyway, I sold a number of handguns and shipped them to FFLs in various states with a copy of my driver's license. I have kept the copies of the FFLs and wrote on them which gun was sold to them. I always checked out the FFL online to make sure it was being shipped to a legitimate dealer. My question is, how long do I need to keep all of these papers? 5, 10 years? Just keep them forever? Most of the sales were over 5 years ago.
Any input appreciated.

I take pictures of any documents I want to keep like this with my phone and they get uploaded to my cloud storage where I can always find it if needed. That way you eliminate the paper clutter.

[Tmygun]

No, although FFL's have to keep their 4473's for about that long.

It's about the forward traces. You don't want to be the last definite link in the chain when the music stops. If you sell a gun in 2001, and it's the sole clue at a horrific crime scene in 2017, it seriously saves you money to be able to send the cops along to that gun shop in Toledo; there's no federal database that gets them there otherwise, they have to know which shop it went to before they can go see who the replacement suspect is.

It's just insurance, for you personally. Written evidence is always better than blanket denials. Bad guys always deny everything, but they can't show that the gun left their hands 15 years ago, and have an FFL's bound book corroborate their story.

It's not even cooperating with the evil government in their quest to register all guns; in fact, what you're doing is derailing a wrongful govt investigation of you as the prime suspect in a crime which you clearly did not commit (it was the one-armed man.)

Say what you will about PA's Record of Sale Database, but if you sold a pistol to an FFL 15 years ago (and he sold it to anyone at all within the Commonwealth, which is mostly what FFL's do), the cops can look the gun up and they never even come to your house.

Can't I just say that I had a concussion and can't recall?