TexasCHLforum.com

The trace is done all the time. It just involves a lot of simple leg work. The police find the gun and know the maker. They go to the maker and he has a record of the distributor he sold the gun to. The police leave and go to the distributor. He has to keep records of the store he sold the gun to. They leave and go to the store. It has the yellow forms showing who they sold the gun to. That is you, when you bought the gun at Academy.

This is a type of registration. It is very flawed because if you sold the gun, you don't tell anyone (in Texas) and the chain stops. The gun could have been sold a dozen times since you owned it. This is why some states do have true registration systems and also require you to use FFL's for every gun transaction.

In other words, if you planted a gun in the criminals hand, and it was your own gun, the cops would find out. The good news is that Texas would not require you to plant a gun in the robbers hands (or drag him inside, another old saw). Our state allows armed self defense to protect property under many conditions.


Sorry, AEA, but having received ATF traces while at the TABC (and telling them we have no record of the disposition), I really don't think they use the NICS data. I do believe it is kept longer than the law allows (overnight system backups mean it gets kept indefinitely) but I don't see them using it yet.