I have been contacted by the FBI in regards to a revolver I purchased directly from a dealer. They told me that I was the registered owner of said revolver via thier records. They told me that the records end with the first retail purchase and they hoped that I could help them with any information I had concerning who I sold the Colt to. I wanted to know why they were interested and they told me the Colt was recovered following a criminal act in Florida, they traced the serial number back to the dealer who then gave them my information...end of the road as far as recorded information. I had nothing to hide and told them I sold the Colt to an old friend of mine, they wanted to know his name and address, again I had nothing to hide and told them his name but then told them that he was dead, been dead for a couple years.
Florida is about as far away from Spokane as you can get and still be in the contiguous U.S. They asked me if I had anything they could go off of, again I had nothing to hide and wanted to be helpful if I could and told them as far as I knew my friend had one child, a daughter. They wanted to know her name and I was a little hazy about that information but did know that she had married an airman that was stationed at Fairchild, AFB. That turned out being the piece of the puzzle that they were looking for because the airman and my friend's daughter got transferred to an airforce base in Florida and that would explain how it got there. They would not give me any details about how the Colt got into the hands of a criminal, everything just clicked when I told them about the daughter having a husband in the Air Force.
A gun dealer I've known for years told me once that if the Feds ever came looking for his gun sale records he would have a mysterious office fire...I call that tough talk for a one-eyed fatman.