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Lady student, mid 20s, from a CHL class a couple of years ago called last Friday, needing to find procedure for replacement CHL. She works at a motorcycle shop. Accountant. Got her own crotch rocket. Had driven her extended cab pickup to Stroker's (biker bar on Harry Hines in Dallas) last Thursday evening after work and met some friends. Burglar hit thru truck window between 7 and 9 p.m. Her normal carry gun was in shop for trigger work. Had Dad's (borrowed) .45 in console. Lost it - and neither she nor Dad had ever written down the serial number. The scumbag also took her purse which she had tucked out of sight under back seat ... Moral of story: Record those serial numbers to have at least a chance of recovery one of these days if guns are stolen.

Very good advise.
It is something I know I need to do, but for some reason I just keep putting it off....I'll do it right now.

Thanks, for the reminder,
-geo

Did her Dad buy it from a Dealer? If so, he should have a receipt with the Serial Number on it.

Additionally, if her Dad bought it from a Dealer, that Dealer will have the serial number in a couple of places......one on the yellow form (forgot the number 4473?) and in the Dealer's "Bound Book" which is kept by every Dealer.

If her Dad bought it FTF from someone and got no receipt, then he is outta luck......
unless he remembers how to contact whoever he got it from and hopefully they still have the serial number on their records. That would be a long shot though.......
I have sold many guns FTF and as soon as they are gone, I purge them from my inventory sheet that contains all serial numbers.

I keep two records on my firearms. The first is an open office spreadsheet, and the second is a windows application that plays somewhat nicely under wine. I keep a complete backup of both on CD-R that is kept off site in case of fire, burglary, ect. My advice to anyone wanting to keep a record of their firearms is to do the same.

Stolen gun was a rather old 1911 I think her Dad had for a long time. I did suggest to ask her Dad to see if it had ever been in an FFL's shop for repair, that there would probably be some serial number paperwork on it somewhere there.

Here is what I use http://www.somanyroads.org/gunsafe/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Keith B wrote:Here is what I use http://www.somanyroads.org/gunsafe/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Same here. It's an easy to use program and you can add pictures too.

Keith B wrote:Here is what I use http://www.somanyroads.org/gunsafe/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks Keith, I hadn't seen this program before and it looks like what I have been needing.

-geo

G.A. Heath wrote:I keep two records on my firearms. The first is an open office spreadsheet, and the second is a windows application that plays somewhat nicely under wine.

I just keep a text document and some jpgs in a zipped and PGP encrypted file on my desktop and a flash drive in my pocket. Works for any OS...which is useful with two Debian laptops, one dual-booting XP, and two desktops, one Vista and the other XP. Each has GnuPG installed and a copy of my private key, so the only time it's all in one place is when I'm there to defend it all.

Even if the house burns down and I fail to grab my pants on the way out, there's a spare copy on a CD of assorted useful paperwork in mom's gunsafe, (updated from time to time as new paperwork comes along) so we should be about as protected as we can get in terms of documentation.

I use GunSafe myself, running under wine as well as my spread sheet. I did get a hold of a legally licensed copy Coloseum Software's Aimi Ebook home for free, currently you can get a copy by donating $20 to the Firearms Coalition. Its a Much better, and more powerful package, home version of a package that is intended for use as a replacement for an FFL's bound book. Unfortunately that package does not get along happily under wine and it has ruined my experience with gunsafe so I am threatening to "Roll my own" solution.

Ok, since we are discussing this I feel I should provide a list of packages I am aware of to record this info in. So here's some windows software I am aware of for this task.

Starting things off: Coloseum Software's AIMI eBook home. Available for "free", if you make a $20 donation to the Firearms Coalition from here.
Next we have the package mentioned above, and the one I use, Gunsafe.
Finally we have one that has multiple versions, one can run on windows natively, and two are Java Based: NM Gun Collector.

I backup important information on remote servers, for free... its called email.

Frost wrote:I backup important information on remote servers, for free... its called email.

Yep, and google documents.

lrb111 wrote:

Frost wrote:I backup important information on remote servers, for free... its called email.

Yep, and google documents.

Someone mentioned a safe. We had a lot of important records in a safe before Ike. Unfortuantly it wasn't water proof. It took a couple of weeks before we could get to, access and open the safe. most papers were pretty much unreadable. I don't know if safes can be bought water proof but it might be worth concidering.

There is a kewl little utility called dropbox. What you do is set up one account on all your computers. Your data is then synced with all your computers and off line. can be found at http://www.getdropbox.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I wouldn't put sensitive personal documents on a public server but I'm paranoid that way. I do have copies on a thumb drive in my safe box and another at my parents house.