Nevada Carry
  • Home
    • Contact >
      • FAQ
    • Safety
    • Search
  • Blog
  • Open Carry
    • Open Carry Safety
    • Open Carry and the Constitution
  • Concealed Carry
    • How to Get a CCW
    • Carrying on a CCW
  • Car Carry
  • Local Laws
    • Public Buildings
    • Blue Cards
    • Preemption History
  • Self-Defense
  • Buying and Selling Guns
    • Universal Background Checks
  • Other States
    • CA Carry
  • 2025 Legislation

Nevada Carry Blog
For full archive, see the Blogspot archive

Bills of Sale

1/17/2019

 
Picture
Private sales make some buyers and sellers nervous. Is this guy a felon? Is the gun stolen? Chances are, you never know. You also never know if down the line, the buyer or subsequent owner will use the gun in a crime. To some, a bill of sale appears to be the answer. Some buyers will refuse to fill out a bill of sale, for various reasons. It’s more complex than it seems.
 
For the time being, private gun sales are legal in Nevada and in many other states. Voluntary private background check systems are rare. In the Silver State, one has to send a letter to Carson City using a courtesy program graciously extended by the Department of Public Safety after Question 1 stupidly eradicated the statutory provision for the same program. At least bureaucrats have more decency and sense than the gun banners. Yet the ambiguity raises concerns to some.
 
Let’s dispel some myths.
 
Selling to a felon or prohibited person unwittingly is not going to get anyone in trouble unless the seller knows the buyer can’t own guns. If someone is unsure, don’t do the sale. And if you do sell to a bad guy in good faith, the police still have to prove you knew or reasonably should have known that the neighbor you saw get arrested three times is a felon.
 
The biggest fear sellers have is their gun turning up at a murder scene. The detectives call the ATF in West Virginia to trace what wholesaler bought the gun from the manufacture, what dealer bought it off the wholesaler, and who’s name is on the Form 4473 in the dealer’s files. Then the police call on the buyer, who, according to the myth, is taken downtown to be interrogated and charged with murder because it was “their gun.”
 
A detective investigating what obviously appears to be a racial gang murder is not going to suspect the first buyer, John Smith, of the murder. The detective will be concerned that Mr. Smith sold the gun to a gang member, but more likely, the detective wants to know if Mr. Smith had the gun stolen or sold it. When the police call, Mr. Smith informs the detective that he sold the gun, and don’t you know, he sold it to Demarcus Williams. Mr. Smith was 300 miles from the scene of the murder.
 
Adding in a layer, the officer contacts Demarcus Williams, who tells the detective he sold the gun because he was leaving for college and couldn’t have it there. Methy McRedneck was the buyer, who seemed a little intense. Turns out Methy McRedneck was owed $5,000 from the dead guy. Mr. Smith is off the hook.
 
Having a bill of sale in the rare event it escapes confinement and kills someone illegally is handy for just one reason; so that if the police have the gun, they will get a lead on who might have bought the gun. Most citizens and gun owners secretly like to help solve crimes and be cool to the police, so they’ll happily give up their copy of a bill of sale to put a dirtbag behind bars. That’s all well and good, but those who actually had that happen are in the minority. Most of the time, the investigating detective pretty much assumes the original buyer had nothing to do with the crime for reasons above.
 
Many gun owners refuse to do bills of sale because of concerns that their address and info may be used for theft later on or because of a simple invasion of their privacy rights. Someone who sells a car generally don’t keep any info on the buyer once their copy of the release of liability hits the mail and no one keeps tabs on who bought blunt objects or kitchen knives from their garage sale.
 
Another reason is to avoid a paper trail that some do-good citizen might decide to hand over to the ATF if national gun registration ever becomes a thing. If the ATF traces buyers and threatens to those who claim they sold the gun to prove it, that bill of sale becomes a good way to keep your dog or your nursing wife from being shot. Unfortunately, many gun owners will gladly give up their guns and their paperwork to keep a future tyrannical government from stomping all over them.
 
On one hand, I can’t fault people for doing whatever is necessary to save their family’s skins. On the other hand, I would hope they would tell the ATF to pound sand and be willing to go down in a hailstorm of lead should confiscation be attempted. This is assuming the ATF traced the gun to you in the first place, bothered to follow-up and harass people, and if they had the time/manpower to make arrests that the US attorney may or may not charge. It’s not likely that non-compliance with reasonable doubt will lead to you being drug off to the gulag.
 
For those of you who keep bills of sale to dime out others to save your skin, I hope the ATF shoots your dog anyway.
 
Finally, I don’t look to harshly upon people who want a bill of sale. For the most part, many are selling their first gun. For them, it’s peace of mind in a process they don’t fully grasp yet. Over time, as they come to realize most people buying and selling guns in their circle are also normal, the desire for needless paperwork will disappear. Make selling guns a non-issue and soon enough they’ll treat it like trading lawnmowers.

Besides, half of these people will loose the paperwork anyway.
 
It’s not something to harangue fans of Bill O’Sale over, just politely decline the sale. There is no reason to alienate private sellers when we can convince them their fears are empty. And sellers, if they have a CCW, you don’t need a bill of sale. If they do anything stupid with the gun you sold, there was nothing you could do about it. No need to be paranoid or feel guilty.
Picture

Comments are closed.

    Archives

    April 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    September 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    April 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    May 2015

    Categories

    All
    Campus Carry
    Ccsd
    Schools

    RSS Feed

    Blogspot Archive
    Blog roll
    Clayton E. Cramer
    Gun Watch
    Gun Free Zone

    The War on Guns
    ​Commander Zero
    The View From Out West
 This does not constitute, nor should be implied as, legal advice. Always seek an attorney's advice and consult state and local laws yourself. User assumes all liability for use of the information provided here. Site has been reviewed by certified instructors. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.​ Copyright 2024.
  • Home
    • Contact >
      • FAQ
    • Safety
    • Search
  • Blog
  • Open Carry
    • Open Carry Safety
    • Open Carry and the Constitution
  • Concealed Carry
    • How to Get a CCW
    • Carrying on a CCW
  • Car Carry
  • Local Laws
    • Public Buildings
    • Blue Cards
    • Preemption History
  • Self-Defense
  • Buying and Selling Guns
    • Universal Background Checks
  • Other States
    • CA Carry
  • 2025 Legislation