Mass shootings

[GMDino]

(02-23-2018, 11:00 AM)Belsnickel Wrote: This is related to those differences between California and the states most of the rest of us are from. The director at a non-profit which I am on the board for took a cross country road trip last year. Both she and her fiancee are rather liberal, but our brand of liberal, so also gun owners. Her fiancee actually owns his father's old service pistol (I say old, it's a SIG P229), which his father sold to him after he bought it upon retirement from the Virginia State Police. He has a concealed firearms permit and did his research on reciprocity, making sure to follow all laws.

While they were in California, they got pulled over for something by CHP. If I recall correctly that were speeding, but it was because there was a separate speed limit for pulling a trailer or something. I don't remember entirely, but I remember it not being something that we have laws about around these parts. Anyway, he had the firearm and ammunition separate, all locked away, out of reach, etc., but, because he wanted to be honest he told the officer that he had a firearm in the vehicle, explained the details, etc.

What happened next was what really displayed the difference between California and Virginia. They wanted to verify ownership. Well, there is no way to do that. The original sale was to the VSP. After that, there is nothing on record. They kept asking for proof of ownership, how he got it, etc. He kept explaining that in Virginia there is no tracking on that. When his father purchased it, there was no record. When his father sold it to him, there was no record. There is not going to be any record of this, ever. That's how Virginia operates. The CHP officers just did not believe this. They were incredulous that this was the case, even after talking on the phone to someone at VSP. They finally decided they were confiscating the weapon and that VSP had to put in the request to get it back, and at that point this guy could work it out with VSP. It's been over a year since then, they are still fighting through this.

Given what we have discussed here would you say VA needs to be able to track that kind of sale in the future?

Personally I think CA overreacted given that your friends were from out of state and he received information from their home state.  But if there had to be a record of the transaction it would have solved that problem, no?