My two purchases flagged as stolen by NCIC cleared up as errors too. In both cases these were guns, a Colt and a S&W, from the pre-GCA68 era with straight numerical serials, where the NCIC parameters can cover many different models. Try to figure out how many revolvers would be covered by “S&W, .38 cal, serial #12345”, which is all NCIC seems to need for a match.

The police response was nothing as dramatic as described above, by the way. Both times, I got the distinct impression that all law enforcement involved figured they were running a fool’s errand.

The state police firearms unit doing the check told my friend the FFL to not continue the transaction while they tried to rustle up a local cop to come by and take a look. Someone did, took down some information, and told my friend to put the gun in his safe until they called him and gave him the okay to finish the transfer. It was as if they knew it would amount to nothing.

My friend happened to know the state trooper on whose desk one of the cases landed, and she told him she had a heck of a time getting the original reporting agency (in Florida) interested in digging through 40-year-old microfiche files, only to determine from barrel length and other features in the officer’s report that this couldn’t be the gun.