Found a gun, what to do?

I do property management and I found a gun in one of the apartments. The resident vacated the premises and I have posted abandonment notice on the apartment and certified mailed it to the resident. If the resident doesn't contact me within 7 days of mailing such notice I take possession of the apartment, legally by law. In this case the resident didn't contact me so I legally took possession of the apartment.

So I go in the apt, several weeks later after mailing the notice and to my surprise I found Smith & Wesson model 422 in .22LR in one of the kitchen cabinets. The gun is missing a magazine, but appears to be in OK shape otherwise.

Obviously I would like to buy a magazine for the gun and keep it for inexpensive target practice. .22LR is so cheap to shoot, however my wife is concerned about the gun being used in a crime. I wonder how it works when you find a firearm. Do I have to register such firearm? Can I find out if the firearm was used in a crime?

Any insight would be helpful.

 

Sell it to me
If you want to know if it is ( hot/stolen ) you will have to take it to a police station to verify if it is hot.
If it is they will take it and ask how you came across it.
After you tell them they will take it if it was reported stolen or return it to you if not.
Good for piece of mind one way or another.

 

LOL

If I can I will keep it and put many, many rounds through it

 

I'd bring it to the police station and tell them how you got it. if it's legally yours, and a legal gun they should be able to trace it's registration

 

Maybe you can report it and after they check you will be able to keep it

 

In a situation like this take the safe way and ask the police about it

 

Call the most local police station's non emergency number and ask them how to deal with it.

 

1) make sure to check for clear - this includes the chamber...

2) make sure it has a s/n number stamped on the frame somewhere, ...not filed away, etc - that's would be a big red flag!

 

They will not verify by phone it will need to be brought to a station to check if it is hot or not.

 

I would say ask the police, but do not take it to them. If you give it to them for investigation you'll likely not get it back.

 

Do yourself a favor and turn it in.

 

No registration in AZ.
AZ cops would not be able to access registration records from other states unless they are told what states to check.

IF it were reported stolen in AZ, they would have that.

Above advice is solid. Contact the local PD and make arrangements for a date/time to bring the gun in. Don't just walk into the station and say "I HAVE A GUN!"

Oh... okay, AZ you might be able to do that and not get a 2nd look

Anyways... If the gun checks clean, the PD will complete a 4473 to transfer it to you.

 

Checked both and both check out. My wife's cousin is a cop, so I will have her talk to him, see what he says...

 

If it is reported stolen you do not want it back.
They will be fair with you.
You do not want to have it in your vehicle if you get pulled over and they run it and find it reported stolen

 

ahh, I forgot to take OP's location into account.

fuck mainland gun laws!!
It's such a pain in the dick to register firearms here

 

Which is exactly why he should call first.

 

looks like this has been covered, as idaho said, i wouldn't transport it.

 

As of now you have plausible deniability that you did not know if it is stolen. I would keep it just like it was an end table that the renters left.

You might as well kiss it good bye if you take it to the popo. Here if I have a friend run the serial numbers for me and it turns up stolen he has to confiscate the gun no matter what.

 

a 4473 doesnt transfer anything to you, it makes sure that you are legal to own a gun.

 

This ^^