Just curious if gun ownership data is available to police when arresting someone for a non-violent crime at the person’s house. Do they normally check this before approaching the house?
In my jurisdiction, police can see that the target has – or does not have – a concealed handgun permit. But they cannot check for any other information, because no license or record is required for general firearms ownership in Virginia.
This is jurisdictional. Some locations will require registration of all guns purchased and transferred, and others are cash and carry.
There are exceptions as well - for home built guns, certain antiques (C&R) that are exempt from these requirements even in jurisdictions where the requirements exist.
This was the debate in Canada - they established a long gun registry, to complement the hangun registry. the next government then cancelled it. (It was a royal screwup an a financial boodoggle, but that’s a different story).
Anyway, the argument was, obviously, that in such a case crooks don’t register weapons. (84% of all firearms crimes are committed with unregistered weapons, the other 16% are typically tings like murder-suicides where the crime was unpredicatable and knowing about the gun would have been too late).
So if the police checked the registry and found no weapon listed, then the only thing they could say for sure was that there still could be a weapon there, unregistered. They would have to approach as if there might be a gun in the house. Also, there may be a new, additional resident in the house who brought his legal weapon with him, or the weapon or the owner may have moved…
So a billion dollars on a database, and the cops are right back where they started. No matter what you know or don’t, approach with caution.
In Wisconsin the answer to the OP is a resounding NO. There are no licenses or registrations required to own a firearm. It is actually a crime (WI Statute 175.60) for law enforcement to check to see if someone has a concealed weapons license
except to determine if a permit is valid when the person is present and being detained by police and is armed carrying concealed. But no license is needed to conceal when one is in their own home or business.
This is America. I assume everybody has a gun. Shit, my Grandmama had a gun!
Map. I think it’s up to date. For all the yellow states: no. For the other colors: maybe. Having a registry is not the same as having an immediately available one.
For CCW, you are supposed to identify that you are carrying immediately when pulled over, and probably the same if talking to a cop in this fashion, or at least it’s a good idea. In most of these if not all, you don’t need a CCW you carry in your own home.
Pet peeve in TV shows: “the gun is registered to the suspect.” No Dexter, you don’t have to register anything in Florida.
Not sure what you mean by “supposed to”. In most states it’s not legally required to volunteer that information.
You may be right legally but a) you should probably cite something more accessible than an entire website, and b) perhaps I should say “should,” because it will make things easier than playing dumb, and you are cautioned that it would be prudent by many sources. But in any case the worst thing you can do is lie.
That cite allowed you to click on each individual state and see (at the very top of the states page) whether or not one has to inform. It was 50 cites in one and tops anything anyone else could cite to claim most states do not require informing.
You are mistaking volunteering “officer I have a gun on my person” with “Do you have any weapons on your person” 'No". Not volunteering that you are armed and saying you are not armed when asked are 2 different things. Not volunteering the information is not a lie by omission unless the state says you must inform upon contact. And as my previous perfect cite showed, most states say one must not inform voluntarily.
The police or any law enforcement may check before they serve a search warrant/arrest warrant. However, most will simply assume that a weapon is present and act accordingly.
If I were being arrested for any crime (violent or non) I would not say anything to law enforcement after I have asserted my right to remain silent and demanded that I be allowed to speak with an attorney. You can’t be prosecuted for what you do not say.
The thing is, as has been posted here, in most locales there isn’t anything to check.
No registration, no licensing required for ownership, and in some places CCW permit information is not public (including to the police). So there is no resource to check.
In the places that have licensing/registration it’s kind of a moot point. The system may show the subject has no weapons listed to him but that is meaningless. He/she could have access to someone elses or simply be in possession of a stolen weapon.