The Biden administration introduced a horrible policy called “Zero Tolerance” that was detrimental to the firearms industry – specifically, FFLs. Instead of being an agency that is intended to regulate and work with the firearm industry, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) became even more hostile to the industry and started treating […]
Since the Gun Control Act of 1968, all licensed firearm manufacturers (FFLs) are required to mark firearms with a unique serial number.
A gun’s serial number allows a police department, or other law enforcement agency, to be able to “trace” the firearm to the last registered owner if it’s a crime gun or to help return it to its rightful owner if it is a stolen gun.
I’m a firearms attorney who has represented hundreds of FFLs across the country (gun store, firearm manufacturers, etc) and will use my experience in firearm legal requirements (like serial numbers) to help you learn about these gun markings and how you can perform a gun serial number lookup.
Contrary to popular belief, there really is no centralized registry of firearms at the federal level. Some states have their own laws, registries and prohibitions against personally made firearms without a serial number (sometimes called a “ghost gun” by anti-gunners).
ATF regulations require that firearms made by FFLs have 5 markings on them: Manufacturer, Model, City and State of manufacture, Caliber/Gauge, and Serial Number. The serial number can never repeat for the same manufacturer but different manufacturers can have the same numbers.
For example, There can be a Ruger pistol with serial number 100 and a Marlin Firearms rifle with serial number 100 but never two Rugers with the serial number 100, even if they are different models.
Looking Up a Firearm Serial Number
As a regular citizen gun owner, you don’t have access to the same resources that a firearms dealer or a law enforcement agency does. This is a shame because everyone should be able to check if a particular gun is a stolen firearm or whether it was used in an act of gun violence.
First step: find the serial number on the firearm (located on the firearm’s frame or receiver)
Second step: contact the appropriate agency to get the details
The following are resources that can be used to “trace” a firearm’s serial number:
National Tracing Center
The National Tracing Center is a resource for law enforcement to “trace” (lookup) a firearm by its serial number – this is most often used when a gun is found at a crime scene.
The NTC also has the eTrace program for firearm lookups and also manages the list of firearms reported theft/loss by an FFL and the Obliterated Serial Number Program.
State-Level Agencies
Many states, like Florida and Ohio for examples, have resources that can be used to lookup the history of a firearm by its serial number.
HotGunz Database
HotGunz Database, is a private website that allows people to list stolen firearms and to lookup whether a particular firearm has been listed. This is far from a complete list of crime guns but it makes sense to check here.
Local Gun Dealer
Contacting your local gun dealer is a good idea, too. They may not have a database but they may have sales records to help or they can check within their contacts if there’s been any information about a particular firearm.
Firearm Manufacturers
Some firearm manufacturers have a way to lookup their firearm serial numbers on their websites but these are not really helpful when it comes to looking up potential crime guns although they can be helpful for looking up when and where (if there’s more than one factory) a firearm was made.
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