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No Serial Number

Inusuit is correct. My wife's grandfather had an old Stevens Nitro Express 12 ga. shotgun that was at least 100 years old and it had a serial number on it. It was hard to find but it was there and recorded when I shipped it to her nephew.
 
If they pass a law that is so obtuse that no one can interpret it, how can violations be prosecuted? In the end it is still the Government's burden to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a law has been violated. Although there isn't much publicity about it, that is what has happened where I live. There are many gun laws that have become so convoluted that they can't be prosecuted and are not enforced.
 
LoboGunLeather said:
As a bare minimum I would recommend documented correspondence with the state attorney general specifically demanding clarification for the OP's specific circumstances
Click to expand...

I did send an email to the state AG requesting clarification.

I’m afraid this is just the first thing I will be dealing with. Still waiting for all the Measure 114 stuff to crawl through the courts.

I know I will not be stamping my wonderful FN Mauser.

Jim
 
Again..

Fed Firearms Act 1938:
Made it a Felony to Remove Alter, Obliterate ANY manufacturers applied firearms ser#.
The Act did NOT require any mfg to APPLY a ser# to ANY firearm manufactured, nor had any law or act before then.
Most mfg'rs did ser# their firearms as a matter of choice however. Most any Military issue firearm was/is ser#'d.

In January 1958 still under the Federal Firearms Act 1938, Congress voted to change the FFA38 to the following.
As of July 1958 and going forward..
ALL centerfire caliber rifles, and ALL Handguns regardless of caliber will be ser#'d by their mfg'r.
All Shotguns (Long-guns) and All cal .22rf Long-guns are still exempt from ser#'g by their mfg'r.

Some manf'rs chose to ser# Shotguns and cal .22rf Longguns as well. That was their choice.

Then to GCA1968 which replaced the FFA1938 as the Federal Gun Control Act.
With it's enactment and passage:
The Shotguns and the cal .22rf Long-guns that had been exempt from being ser#'d by their mfg'rs were now REQUIRED to be ser#'d going forward.
The CF rifles and All handguns being ser#'d was still in effect from the 1958 ruling.

So in effect as of the GCA68,,we have all classes of firearms being required to be ser#'d at mfg'r.
That's a little misleading because 2 catagorys (CF Rifles and All Handguns) had already been required to be ser#'d since 1958.

These new laws about guns w/o ser#'s are aimed at going after the Ghost Gun issue. But they are not well worded nor thought thru.
AFAIk, the 68GCA has not changed and it is still perfectly legal for a non-FFL to make his/her own TypeI firearm for their own use.
Of course all State and Local laws must be followed as well

If the new law(s) state that you need to ser# it, then pick a number and place it on the gun.
 
4T5GUY said:
I did send an email to the state AG requesting clarification . . . Jim
Click to expand...

There are regulations and there is common sense used to comply. If you own a firearm that has been altered or re-manufactured, the BATF requires a serial number since you are a private individual who manufactured a gun.

Second, reality check is asking who is going to get you in trouble transporting or inspecting a gun without a serial number? Likely stopped for a tail light and they find a unserialized firearm. Guess which one gets you in the most trouble? If you stamp the gun with a random number and list it as such in your log book, that is all you need to keep out of trouble. Law Enforcement is mostly interested in whether the gun is listed as stolen or not. The only way they have to determine that is to run the serial number. Yours will come back as NOT stolen. That is all they care about, unless you converted the gun to full auto without the proper license.

Probably the worst thing one can do is contact a state office for clarification. That statement in itself is an oxymoron. The state will not know and likely to get you in more trouble than not.

The BATF regulations on this issue are quite clear in that you need to number the gun, plus they do not require you to get their approval. The BATF allows private individuals to manufacture or re-manufacture a firearm as long as you identify it. It is usually quite clear to determine if a particular gun had a serial number removed or not. If a S&W, it would usually show crude filing or sanding marks on the butt. That means the gun once had a number which violates laws that were on the books 30 years before the GCA. Now you have to wait until the "State" replies, if they do or not. Worst case is they will come up with destroy the weapon because they know no better, or more likely that they do not like guns.
 
Stamping a radom ser# on a firearm that left the orig mfg'rs factory w/o one, and then recording it as such in your FFL Log is not doing yourself a favor.

There's the Manufacturers applied ser#,,that which is required to be listed in the 'Book' IF it so appears on the firearm.

There is the ser# that the new law(s) now require of home-made firearms ,,those not mfg'd by FFL licensed Mfg'rs (Type 07 FFL), but made by non-licensees for their own use.

The gun you make for your own use as a non-FFL is not supposed to be re-sold or transfered. But they do make it into the trade buy/sell stream anyway.
Put your own Identifying Ser# on it and be done with it.

You cannot however act as an agent of a Firearms Mfg'r and stamp any old ser# on one of their guns that does not/did not ever have one, and then claim that the # is now the legal Ser# of that firearm.

There is an 'Identifying Characteristic' such as a random number, symbol,stamped or engraved name /feature etc, that can be placed on the firearm for ID purposes.
That Characteristic can be noted in the FFL book. There is a section on the NCIC computer entry for stolen firearm for such info if the gun gets stolen. Helps to sort out and further identify a particular piece among others that are common.
But it's not the Mfg'rs applied ser#.

Those mfg'd at a time when a ser# for that particular catagory of gun was not required and not stamped upon it are just listed as NSN in most FFL logs.

Evidence of having a ser# and it being removed are a different matter.
 
Update

glowe said:
Probably the worst thing one can do is contact a state office for clarification. Now you have to wait until the "State" replies, if they do or not.
Click to expand...

Only one thing I disagree with in all your excellent input is about contacting the State AG’s Office. My position is they made the law and should clarify it.

I did get a clarification today. Among other things that are exempt are PRE 1968 firearms that did NOT originally have a serial number. I guess I read a “curtailed” version of this new law which didn’t have all the and/if’s/or but’s. A complete copy of the law was attached to the email response and after some scrolling I found the specific section.

Jim
 
I guess the United States Constitution's "Article I, Section 9, Clause 3: No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed" is null and void in Oregon.

Never let little things like the Constitution get in the way of progress.
 
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