Family Member Enlightenment

[umd0808]

Just wanted to say a big thanks to everyone here...

Had a nice discussion tonight with my sister after a few drinks about the laws in the glorious state of MA. She happens to work for a local PD as a crime analyst.

We were at my parents' house talking about how earlier we were at my new house with some friends doing some sanding and painting and may have been a little loud (quite a few drinks involved). She commented about how domestic violence law (her main analysis work) says that if a neighbor calls in a potential DV situation the police are required to speak to each resident and enter the residence.

I laughed and said there is no chance that if some crazy neighbor called the cops for loud noises and they showed up would I ever let them in. I would answer the door and speak to the officers and address any concerns (even getting whoever else may have been home to come to the door).

She says well if they look you up and they see you have an LTC then that combined with the neighbor's call they have probable cause to search your house and check to see where your firearms are. I told her they could go fly a kite if I was at the door with my wife and told them there was no issue and they wanted to enter. She told me that they would forcefully enter and search. I basically said that if they threatened my life by forcefully and illegally entering my house then they would not enjoy the repercussions. That sort of ended that part of her argument.

So after that she made a comment about how firearms and DV are directly related. During the conversation she says "well every gun in this state is registered" I look at her dumbfounded, "that's what the Lt. told me" - (again DV is her main stuff so she never deals directly with firearms related issues) I almost fell out of my seat. I then proceeded to educate her on how new residents from out of state can bring in legal firearms, or a resident can move out of state with their firearms, or any firearm purchased pre registration timeline wont show up as long as the first owner is alive and she gets all in a huff. "I know we can look up in Federal databases who the last legal owner was".

I rebuke her with the notion that she can probably look up who the last FFL sold the firearm to, but as far as private sales in most states then they were SOL. And even in MA only transfers are registered, not firearms...so if the seller did not file an FA-10 or the CHSB lost the FA-10 then they could never really prove 100% who the owner was. She goes on and on about how they can trace it by tracking down each owner, I laugh and tell her if a cop showed up at my door asking about a firearm I had sold and that it was used in a crime I would direct him to a good lawyer.

Again I go over the ways firearms can legally not be "registered" in this state...a light goes off in her head and she says "well that explains why the last legal owner of most of the stuff I see was in CA, ME, or NY and then they moved here and reported their gun stolen"

I love winning arguments/teaching my little sister a thing or two! Just wanted to say thanks to everyone here I've learned from over the past few years of reading.