I read this thread and view it with mixed feelings. No, I have absolutely no feelings toward the rotten thieves, may they burn in hell. But my feelings are those of a used gun buyer. Only occasionally do I wander in to a gun store. And I know those places almost never bother to try to "run" the numbers, if that is even possible. Those of us who have had moderately large collections over the years probably can't avoid buying a stolen gun from time to time. Worse, we have no way to identify the gun as being "yours" from a break in the other day, last year, or the 1950s.
We constantly hear the crooked politicians demanding the impossible, that is universal background checks. They want the background of the buyer checked, but not the guns themselves. I'd be more in favor of mandatory sterilization of most thieves. You could do a background check then just by having them drop trou.
There is little doubt that I have owned at one time or another a gun that was stolen. I might still own one or more and I have no way of telling. Just because a seller "looks honest" isn't worth a warm cup of, well, spit. Some of the most spectacular guns I've ever seen wander in and out of gun shows. Just because you claim title to the guns in your closet doesn't mean you came by them legally or that they're really yours. How many of you reading this thread have solid proof of how you came into your guns?
Can you prove they're really yours? How many even know the history of all your guns? Just because you bought it in a gun store doesn't mean they have it legally. They might have taken it in trade from a scoundrel or a regular customer. They didn't check. They didn't even have a way to check it. If you inherited it from dad or grand dad, how can you prove how he got it? I'm not implying anyone up the chain was intentionally bad. You just can't prove how he got it. Particularly if he's long gone.
Yes, the OP did something kind of stupid. He left a gun in a car, locked or not. His car, in his driveway. I even hope he gets it back. But if he filed a police report, it takes a leap of confidence that they even bothered to enter it in the system, and correctly. Worse, he wasn't required to provide "proof" of ownership because it was given to him in a transaction that didn't include paperwork. Chances are the serial and correct model # and caliber aren't known to anyone in the family at this point, except the victim. No matter how good your character, or that of the father who gave it to you, unless it was purchased new by him at a dealer of those items, you just can't be sure its not stolen.
Think about this problem for a while and see what you come up with.
