Last night I saw a commercial for an A&E series called “Storage Wars.” I assume it’s about people who bid on abandoned storage lockers. Among the items shown in the commercials were guns, one being a revolver. Given you and the storage place don’t know exactly what’s in every box, how would such a sale be handled? Would the firearms have to be turned over due to a lack of a federal firearms license?
The firearms wouldn’t necessarily have to be turned over, it depends on local laws. They are so varied that it would be impossible to elaborate without a location.
I have bought the contents of storage lockers in the past and came across guns only once. 3 rifles and a handgun. Took them to a local gun shop and after confirming the guns were not stolen, I was paid a fair price for the guns. The only hassle was getting the auction company to list each weapon individually on the receipt a couple days after the auction to make the gun shop happy.
having spent years in the storage industry (in Texas), I can offer some insight.
Depending on the state the unit is located in, it may or may not be legal. In Texas, we have the right to sell the gun (intrestingly enough, we cannot sell liquor, however). My company played the role of out of sight, out of mind and if we noticed a gun in the unit during out intial inspection (post lien, pre-auction) we would try and “hide” it so we did not “know” we were selling a gun. This was not my perfered way of handling it, my boss was kind of a dipshit.
That being said, some states it is legal, and some states it is not.
Here is the code for Texas -
http://law.justia.com/texas/codes/2005/pr/005.00.000059.00.html