"Illegal database"

[cavmedic]

Why is it that every police encounter, just about everyone mentions how their firearm was run though the "ILLEGAL" database etc etc. If they were checking the serial number in NCIC , to verify it wasn't entered as stolen , how is that an illegal database?


I think a lot of people here ASSUME that it is being run through a registration database , when in reality , they are just checking to see if entered stolen .

[BimmerJon]

It's not what it is, it's how it is used.

Registration is not required, hence a database is not legal

[HiredGoon]

I think those are 2 different things.

1. The NCIC stolen gun database (legal)

2. The PA State Police sales/transfer database (illegal)

[G23neverjams]

Every time I've had a weapon present with the local police, they checked the weapon SN's. Every time I've had a weapon present with the game wardens, they checked my weapon SN's. When it comes to the state police, haha, they don't care apparantly

That's just my experience so far....

[cavmedic]

I think those are 2 different things.

1. The NCIC stolen gun database (legal)

2. The PA State Police sales/transfer database (illegal)

Correct, NCIC is a database for lots of things , NOT just guns. I think there is a big confusion and people are getting the two mixed up. They just assume because they are running the serial number, they are checking for ownership.

[PA Traveler]

Registration is not required, hence a database is not legal

More than not required in PA - prohibited under the UFA.

[Yentl Marmelstein]

Every time I've had a weapon present with the local police, they checked the weapon SN's. Every time I've had a weapon present with the game wardens, they checked my weapon SN's.

Did they mention why they were doing this?

[lildobe]

Correct, NCIC is a database for lots of things , NOT just guns. I think there is a big confusion and people are getting the two mixed up. They just assume because they are running the serial number, they are checking for ownership.

Try listening to the "Index" or "Teletype" channel in any major metro area for a day or two - I guarantee you that you will hear gun serial numbers run. They will be checked against both the NCIC Stolen Items database, as well as the sales database - and the dispatchers will even say "That weapon is not stolen, and is registered to Mr. Smith"

I hear it at my job (Which involves monitoring scanners for the Pittsburgh metro area) every day.

I have a feeling that if I get a job up here as a dispatcher, I'm gonna get in trouble for refusing to run guns against the sales database

[ungawa]

There are endless stories on this forum of people being hassled, and in some cases even guns confiscated, because they were not in the "registry." Not because they were stolen.

[NotThatOne]

I think a lot of people here ASSUME that it is being run through a registration database , when in reality , they are just checking to see if entered stolen .

If you are walking down the street, minding your own business and you are illegally detained. During which your iPhone and iPod are removed from your possession, and checked against NCIC...is that legal?

It's not what it is, it's how it is used.

Exactly. The sales registry has been upheld in court and is "legal." It's use, especially in countless re-tellings here and in court cases is illegal. Same with the stolen items. If there is no suspicion of you committing a crime, then detaining you, while running your possessions against ANY database is illegal...or at the least, a violation of several Amendments to the Constitution.