How can you find out if a gun you purchased was stolen?

In US

• Call your local police/sheriff and ask them to check it for you. They will need the serial number, manufacturer, model, and caliber. This is important, since the same number may have been used by different manufacturers. Some manufacturers may have used the same number ranges for different product lines.
  
  If you are unsure what kind of gun it is, check with a gunsmith or a gun dealer. Do not rely on police to figure that out, they are law enforcement professionals, not firearms experts.
  
  Be aware that most law enforcement agencies will not give you this information over the phone; for the most part it is a violation of state law to give out information from criminal history databases. It is also bad practice, as any criminal could call in serial numbers of all the guns they've stolen, to make sure the property was okay to sell without them getting caught.
  
  Should the gun be determined to be stolen, you will most likely have to surrender it to the police. Be prepared to answer lots of questions regarding how and where you bought it. Police have a great deal of interest in people selling stolen property.
  
  
• If the gun appears to have had a serial number at one time, but it is ground off, or otherwise defaced - get away from the person trying to sell it to you as fast as possible. It is almost guaranteed to be either stolen or used in a crime. Removing serial numbers from a firearm is a Federal crime in itself, and if police discover such a gun in your possession, you have a very real chance of being convicted.
  

• If the gun has no serial number due to being produced before this was required, but is unique in some way, police may still have it listed as stolen property, but it's a long shot.
  
  
• There is no central gun database in the US. Federal registration is prohibited by law. This means there is no single website that can be used to check the status or history of a firearm. However, some firearm enthusiast and collector sites keep such lists for their members.
  

• Many stolen guns cannot be identified because the owner didn't know the serial number, didn't report the theft, or it is an older gun without a number.

In Australia

• This website might be helpful. www.planetsoftware.com.au/gunreg You can only enter a serial number. The serial number on a gun is only unique for a particular manufacturer's model. If you have Winchester Model 94 serial #xxxxx and enter that serial number, you will get a hit if a Smith & Wesson revolver with that number is on the list.

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