Posted: 1/2/2008 6:38:02 PM EDT
| I didn't but I was trying to find out what you do if you buy an old home and are tearing it down and you find a firearm. In TN are we allowed to just keep it? Do you need to contact the police? Figured someone on the forum may know the correct answer to this one. |
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In my professional opinion, you'd be best off taking it to a local FFL and asking them to run the serial number through TBI for you. If it turns out to be stolen, the local mounties will be coming to see you post haste, and you can explain the situation. You don't want to risk having the gun in your possession and for some strange reason, the cops decide to run the number (like a traffic stop, or someone calls the cops because they heard gunfire), and have it come up hot. It'll be much easier to explain if you can honestly say you had just found it, as opposed to you found it 10 years prior. Other than that, I can't think of any reason you'd have to surrender the gun. I would think that if you bought the house, you are buying everything inside the house at the time of purchase. If some previous owner left a gun, well, there's always the old grade-school rule: "Finder's keepers, loser's weepers." |
| In my professional opinion I would contact your local Police/Sheriff's dept and ask for a officer to come by. The officer can run the numbers for you to see if its stolen or not. If you take it to a dealer and get stopped with it on the way and its hot, well you can figure that one out. I would also attempt to contact the previous home owner and see if they have any knowledge of the gun as well. |
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I think you can take it to a police station and explain the situation. They can fill out a report and after a short time, if not claimed, it is yours. I found a .22 rifle at my gun club. (very old savage before SN were needed). I reported it to my club prez. He said no one ever came to claim it. A police officer friend of mine said I could go through the procedure from above. I didnt, I figured with no SN what are they going to check? |