serial numbers in photos

[Mike.357]

I have always wondered about this.

For the most part, more than 99% of the time, when someone posts a firearm pic and the serial number is visible the number is blured or blotted out. Even in magazines where someone writes about a gun they have they always present it with xxxx at the end in place of digits.

Why is this? What could a deviant person do with your serial number?

[Guest canynracer]

great question...you must have been reading my mind...

[Guest RobTN]

What could a deviant person do with you serial number?

With the serial number, a deviant person could report a firearm as stolen causing problems for the real owner if they ever tried to sell it. There could be other reasons, but that is the first that comes to mind.

[strickj]

they could do a reverse lookup on google,get you name,with your name they get your telephone number,with your phone number they get your address,with your address they steal your mail,with your mail they get your bank statements,with you bank statments,the get your credit card numbers,with you credit card numbers they make a donation to those fun internet sites your wife wont let you look at

[mousegunner]

they could do a reverse lookup on google

There is no database of firearm serial numbers on the internet for a reverse look up. I'm not even sure the cops or FBI can find a complete database in their computers.

If someone wanted to call in your number to the cops as a stolen weapon to get you in trouble they would very soon find themselves in trouble instead. That's not to say some moron with ill will won't try it!

I don't think any harm can come from a photo with your serial number at this time. The danger would lie in the possibility that some government agency (BATFE) might start searching the internet for guns on a banned list, find out who the owner is, with a serial number, and begin forced registrations or eventual confiscations. That would take a lot of paid searchers, and cost a lot of money. Still, it might happen someday.

If it looks as if that day is just around the corner, it will then be time to simply pull the plug on all these wonderful firearm forums, and we will all have to go "grey."

[TGO David]

with you credit card numbers they make a donation to those fun internet sites your wife wont let you look at

And thus we arrive at the crux of the situation.

[Mike.357]

Everything you all mentioned I thought about and I do not see it happening really.

If someone reported my firearm stolen, well I have a reciept for everyone of them and even if I didn't I have knowledge of what shop I purchased from. Now buying FTF it might be different, but if I intended to do that unless I knew the seller I would want to have the sheriff run the number before I took possession.

I agree that there is no database with serial numbers, and that is why I wondered about all of this.

Of course with potentially banned weapons I am certain that no one here would own such a weapon.

Even then do we think the gov't has the resources to do all that legwork to track them things down?

[TGO David]

Even then do we think the gov't has the resources to do all that legwork to track them things down?

In a word... Yes.

[shaftbass]

I mark mine out.

[Rightwinger]

I get Reef to mark mine out for me!

[molonlabetn]

The government has enough trouble keeping track of their own guns (among other things)... I'm not as worried about that, currently, as I would be for the number to be used for criminal purposes. But, that's why I keep all of my bills-of-sale. Realistically, there's no reason to worry about your gun's 'identity' being stolen.

[Mike.357]

as I would be for the number to be used for criminal purposes

What criminal purposes could it be used for?

I am probably too trusting.

[molonlabetn]

What criminal purposes could it be used for?

I am probably too trusting.

Only thing I could think of would be for a neer-do-well to report the gun stolen.

[Im Neero]

I cannot come up with any reasonable ways to abuse a serial number from a gun, but I am constantly surprised with the schemes that devious minds come up with.

[TGO David]

It takes only a second for me to obliterate the serial # on a photograph of a firearm, but it could take much longer to undo any known or unknown ways that some foe on the Internet might abuse the serial # were it to be posted.