Old gun with a serial number, but someone has ground down the number so its not readable. Seems like gunsmiths had a technique, a mild acid, or and x ray, or something else, to be able to bring the serial number out.
Help, for all you knowledgeable people, tell me how they do it. Can't call Abby at NCIS on this one.......
Yes, I know this brings out the comments on "it's stolen" and we will handle this within the law. Deceased person, executor of the estate needs some help. Obviously the owner is dead, so they are not available for giving input.
Asking for a friend.
The question of intent will come up at some point. If it was “ground down” intentionally so that the deceased had an untraceable firearm, then that pretty well paints it in a very negative and criminal light regardless of age.
If on the other hand the serial was “ground down” as a result of rust removal and or refinishing, then that carries an entirely different intent. In that case being old and unreadable might it less likely for possession to be viewed as a crime provided:
- it is pre 1898 *and* is not considered a firearm;
- it never had a serial number to begin with;
- it was a home built firearm that did not fall under the NFA and did not (and still does not) require a serial number; or
- it has never been used in interstate commerce after the serial was obliterated (this one is really tricky).
Serial numbers were not required prior to the NFA of 1934 and then only on weapons that fell under the NFA.
The GCA of 1968 required all firearms to have serial numbers and made it illegal to possess a firearm where a serial number had been removed. Prior removal wasn’t punishable as it would be an ex post facto offense, but possession going forward was illegal. That meant firearms with obliterated serial numbers were legal to own on 10-21-1968 but were illegal to own on or after 10-22-1968. But there’s a loop hole based on 18 U.S.C. 922 (k):
“It shall be unlawful for any person knowingly to transport, ship, or receive, in interstate or foreign commerce, any firearm which has had the importer’s or manufacturer’s serial number removed, obliterated, or altered or to possess or receive any firearm which has had the importer’s or manufacturer’s serial number removed, obliterated, or altered and has, at any time, been shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce.”
In short, the government avoiding a “Taking” by using congresses innumerated powers under the commerce clause as the legal basis, as it avoided a compensable taking from occurring. If it had taken a broader interpretation separate from interstate commerce, it would have not only been a taking but been a compensable taking as well.
Based on a narrow technicality then you could argue that possessing the weapon or even transferring it within the state would be legal as it does not involve interstate commerce.
Realistically though, ATF will jump on you with both feet and assume it has been used in interstate commerce in the past, and more or less leave it to you as a defendant to prove otherwise wise, ignoring a so called presumption of innocence.
Government agencies have deep pockets and lots of attorneys and they know they can wear you down over a period of years while they keep turning the screws and running up your legal bills until you agree to a plea or settlement. Even if you out last them and win in court, they’ll stall for years if ordered to pay your legal fees, and will als probably ensure that anyone associated with your unlawful prosecution has time to move their assets into someone else’s name before a decision is rendered giving you a right to sue them, so that there is nothing for you to go after. It’s a rigged system.
