Scenario:  Guy kills himself.  Most likely with firearm.  Guy had firearms.  Sister he was close with wants said firearms and knows which gun store he bought them from.

Psycho girlfriend claims the guns are hers and that they were purchased with her name on the 4473.  Sister doubts this.  How can sister go about finding out in whose name the guns were bought?  Can the gunshop furnish that information if she talks to them?  Police?  ATF?

I'm not sure where guns are presently or who has possession of them.  Just trying to help out a friend.

I don’t think it matters who bought them, as it has no bearing on who actually owns them.

Possession ship is 9/10th of the law.

Having completed a 4473 means nothing about ownership, just who they were transferred to.  You could convince the gun shop to tell you who bought them, depending on how good a customer he was and how nice the owner is...I've worked in several gun shops, and I would help someone out in this situation with simple information, like who the firearm was transferred to.

Also, legally speaking, a "girlfriend" has no legal standing in probate court, only who was listed in a living will/trust.  FYI, this is why everyone should have a living will or trust.

Without a living will or trust, most valuable possessions will most likely disappear mysteriously...and there really isn't anything you can do about it.

Is there a will ? Consulting an attorney ,securing and inventorying the weapons with all # is the first step . This needs to be done asap to keep the crazy girlfriend from getting the weapons .

I was worried about the possession 9/10 of the law stuff.

Here's the latest I heard:  Girlfriend broke into safe or whatever metal box he used to secure weapons and took said weapons.  Sister wants those firearms but also wants custody of young child (one of 5 children of girlfriend but only one fathered by deceased brother). Her other 4 kids she gave up for adoption but this one was living with bro and GF before incident occurred.  Sis wants guns, but doesn't want to piss off GF so much that GF makes it difficult for sister to get custody.  Bro has been clean for last 5 years and was putting his life back together.  Sounds like GF wasn't and was dragging him down with her drama.

The whole thing is just a cluster.  I don't know anything about wills or whatnot.  Just trying to help out a grieving person.

Looks like you got an old fashioned CLUSTERFUCK there.
This cloud ain't going to have a silver lining  

Best advice I can give for this situation is for the sister to get a lawyer that deals with child custody ASAP.  Don't even worry about the guns..unless they were insanely collectible or worth a lot (and I mean A LOT) of money.

Any good custody lawyer shouldn't have an issues getting the sister custody over a "mother" with a long history of very poor decision making.

I watched Judge Judy laugh someone out of her courtroom with the 9/10ths ownership reply.

Doubt it would stick in a real court either.

Unless the sister has the receipts to prove her brother purchased it and was the legal owner, there is no paper trail (other than the 4473, which may/may not be completed using the brothers name).  The girlfriend has possession of the firearms, and unless she is a prohibited possessor, there is no way to prove they aren't hers.

Thanks, guys!

unless the mother is a raging dumpster fire, your sister doesn't stand much chance of getting custody either...

as far as the guns goes, probably not worth the effort unless we are talking north of $20-30k in value.  Maybe there are a couple guns of special significance to the sister, perhaps you state your case and ask nicely, you can get possession of them.  At this point your only options are to play nice if you want to see the kid on any sort of regular basis.

I just feel bad for the kid.