Getting a stout lesson in how things really work from Tam and Robert! Both of whom have worked or are working in retail gun sales.
Good.
I had a professor once who said that you don't really know if you've reached a sound conclusion until you've expressed it to someone else.
I was almost kinda close about the 4473 being registration.
I forgot a key part: ATF has to start with a serial number, make and model. You might be able to infer a make and model from the serial alone since there's some pattern to how some makers assign them; but it's no guarantee.
For them to figure out that I owned a SIG P238 they have to get to the 4473 I filled out at the gun show, or they need to see it in my possession. The path to that 4473 is swift, but unlikely.
There might be some legitimate concern about the records from folded gun shops that have to be turned into ATF. Nobody seems to know firmly what happens to them. If those turned in records are computerized then they have a shitty ersatz and incomplete registration of gun owners (or at least of gun buyers). I dimly recall a rash of violations where the ATF took the license of a shop and its attendant records while nearly simultaneously approving a new license. Dim enough that I can't recall if it's be debunked or confirmed.
In all likelihood the reporter's phrasing that got the bee under my bonnet was the reported thinking "traced to" and "registered to" were synonymous.
Good.
I had a professor once who said that you don't really know if you've reached a sound conclusion until you've expressed it to someone else.
I was almost kinda close about the 4473 being registration.
I forgot a key part: ATF has to start with a serial number, make and model. You might be able to infer a make and model from the serial alone since there's some pattern to how some makers assign them; but it's no guarantee.
For them to figure out that I owned a SIG P238 they have to get to the 4473 I filled out at the gun show, or they need to see it in my possession. The path to that 4473 is swift, but unlikely.
There might be some legitimate concern about the records from folded gun shops that have to be turned into ATF. Nobody seems to know firmly what happens to them. If those turned in records are computerized then they have a shitty ersatz and incomplete registration of gun owners (or at least of gun buyers). I dimly recall a rash of violations where the ATF took the license of a shop and its attendant records while nearly simultaneously approving a new license. Dim enough that I can't recall if it's be debunked or confirmed.
In all likelihood the reporter's phrasing that got the bee under my bonnet was the reported thinking "traced to" and "registered to" were synonymous.