Thread: deceased estate guns

Here's an excerpt from the Buy, Sell, Swap section.

@timattalon wrote: At this stage I am not sure how to sell / transfer to a registered owner as it is not me actually selling them (current owner has passed). If someone is on the register and is really keen on one of these, PM me as I might be able to work out how to do that, but at this stage I do not know.

FWIW I was recently asked by a friend whose father had died to take possession of his unregistered guns as neither of his sons has a license and the cops were inquiring about what the estate planned to do with them (the cops were going to uplift them if they didn't have an acceptable plan).

I took possession of them and registered them to my existing account without any significant issues. In the course of doing so I had to call them as one gun was an odd-ball and when I started to briefly describe the back story, their first response (somewhat needlessly) was "that's an activating event" (no kidding Einstein, why do you think I'm calling for help with registration?).

So, if you are in possession of (not own, but holding) them, you in theory should register them to you. If you don't physically possess them, or you want to fly under the radar and/or can't be arsed registering them, you should be able to sell them OK and the buyer is then compelled to register them. Just ensure you record the buyer details so if the cops do chase the estate for their whereabouts, you can assure them they are now in the possession of a licensed person. The cops will then check that buyer's account to ensure they have been registered (as they did with me).

Bear in mind, not every gun is currently registered, so it is conceivable that someone buys a gun off an unregistered person, and provided the gun is then registered, the cops have no issue with the transaction. I don't believe selling or disposing of a gun is an activating event, notwithstanding that you should have registered them if you took possession of them from the deceased's gun safe, even if you don't own them.

Just prior to this, I bought a sweet 682 GoldE sporter from an unregistered owner who is resisting the registration process as long as possible and I was able to register it OK and was never asked its origin.