Need some Info

**Bluesberry** · December 23rd, 2011, 07:07 PM

I have an old friend, no computer,,,that had a pistol stolen from his house,he reported it to the police,,, 2-3-4 years later , police found it in Ga. After lots of B.S. the gun was shipped back to a Pa. to a license FFL holder. When my friend goes to the FFL place of business, he fills out a form,?? not sure what form that is.. and the Dealer did a inst. check on him... Them the dealer told him he couldnt have the gun for 15 days after that?? Anyone here now the rules on having your stolen gun returned back to you???? Thanks..

**Xringshooter** · December 23rd, 2011, 09:11 PM

Originally Posted by Bluesberry

I have an old friend, no computer,,,that had a pistol stolen from his house,he reported it to the police,,, 2-3-4 years later , police found it in Ga. After lots of B.S. the gun was shipped back to a Pa. to a license FFL holder. When my friend goes to the FFL place of business, he fills out a form,?? not sure what form that is.. and the Dealer did a inst. check on him... Them the dealer told him he couldnt have the gun for 15 days after that?? Anyone here now the rules on having your stolen gun returned back to you???? Thanks..

One, as far as I know, the gun should have been shipped back to the original police dept that the stolen gun was reported to and they should return it to the rightful owner. However, there may be something in place now that says the rightful owner needs to undergo the background check to insure they are not prohibited before getting it returned to them.

Now, in the case you related above, the FFL has absolutely no right to hold the gun once the background check has been done and the approval has been given. That said, since your friend said that it was going to be 15 days, it sounds like your friend was put into "research" by the PICS people. In "research" the time period to make a decision can take any where from 5 minutes to 15 days. He could have been put into "research" because something may have shown up in the databases that PICS accesses because of the gun being stolen. In this case they have to see what is going on before approving the return of the gun.

Did he actually get an approval number from the PICS when he did the background check at the FFL? If he did, then he should have been able to walk out with his gun. What EXACTLY did the FFL tell him?

**BandanaBandit1** · December 23rd, 2011, 09:23 PM

Seems like the FFL dosent know how to handle stolen property in this type of situation.

**mrnyman** · December 24th, 2011, 01:28 AM

Have your friend go back to the FFL dealer and ask if he had gotten a approval number, if he were ask the FFL to please hand over his Gun.
If your friend were not issuedd a number more than likely he is being researched, no biggie, happens all the time especially when the gun in question were previously stolen.

I think your friend just didnt understand exactly what the dealer said or perhaps the dealer didnt explain clear enough.

I think its just a misunderstanding.

**GunLawyer001** · December 24th, 2011, 02:28 AM

The consensus here is correct, that we're getting a version of events that's not quite accurate.

The gun being reported stolen would have nothing to do with any delay. The PICS check is on the person, not the gun, so any delay would be because there's some ambiguity that the friend may or may not be prohibited by state or federal law.

3rd hand stories are always tough to pin down, but PICS will either immediately approve, immediately deny, or say in effect "give us a week or two to figure out what happened with these records".

If he's denied, he should review the laws, figure out which of the questions he answered might be the problem.

Here's the form with the questions:
http://www.atf.gov/forms/download/atf-f-4473-1.pdf