I was at my favorite local pawn / gun shop this past week. While I was in there, the owner was telling the story of a firearm transaction that turned up a stolen gun. Warshington state venue applies to this story.
Here in WA, we now have the 10 working day waiting period. The background checks are now all done by the WA State Patrol. What the dealer said was, now that the WSP is doing all the BGC's, they also routinely run the firearm serial number against the national list of stolen guns. If a gun is stolen and the transfer is being done in accordance with the law, this will come out. Which means, more stolen guns are going to be intercepted and returned to their proper owners.
Under the previous protocol for BGC, I don't think this was being done on a universal state basis. There were some municipalities that had ordinances requiring dealer holds being placed on guns taken in, and during that time the city was supposed to run a check on the gun to see if it was stolen. But most places around the state did not have this screening system. The BGC was done through the NICS, no SN check there, and I doubt 4473's were being screened by anyone; maybe a BATF audit item for spot checks but I really don't know. Prior to the recent changes in the law here, there was a WA state form to fill out for handguns (and later semi-auto rifles), in addition to the 4473. That one went in to the Dept. of Licensing, but I've no idea if there was any step there for checking serial numbers. I'm thinking, probably not. For many years, they had a years-long back-up of paperwork just entering the basic data against the "applicant."
Here in WA, we now have the 10 working day waiting period. The background checks are now all done by the WA State Patrol. What the dealer said was, now that the WSP is doing all the BGC's, they also routinely run the firearm serial number against the national list of stolen guns. If a gun is stolen and the transfer is being done in accordance with the law, this will come out. Which means, more stolen guns are going to be intercepted and returned to their proper owners.
Under the previous protocol for BGC, I don't think this was being done on a universal state basis. There were some municipalities that had ordinances requiring dealer holds being placed on guns taken in, and during that time the city was supposed to run a check on the gun to see if it was stolen. But most places around the state did not have this screening system. The BGC was done through the NICS, no SN check there, and I doubt 4473's were being screened by anyone; maybe a BATF audit item for spot checks but I really don't know. Prior to the recent changes in the law here, there was a WA state form to fill out for handguns (and later semi-auto rifles), in addition to the 4473. That one went in to the Dept. of Licensing, but I've no idea if there was any step there for checking serial numbers. I'm thinking, probably not. For many years, they had a years-long back-up of paperwork just entering the basic data against the "applicant."