Utah just unveiled a new system that allows private individuals to check information that was previously only accessible to law enforcement or dealers. This free Private Party Firearm Sale Serial And CFP Check Tool provides useful information for private-party transactions. I’ve used it, and am excited to show how it works.
Law & Regulation @ TFB:
The Bureau of Criminal Identification (BCI) is a state agency that issues Concealed Firearm Permits (CFP). It also runs background checks for firearm purchases conducted at dealers, and other criminal records searches. When a purchaser with a CFP buys a gun from a dealer, the dealer checks to see if the permit is valid or not. Valid permits can get automatic approval 24 hours a day, for free.
BCI’s new Private Party Firearm Sale Serial & CFP Check tool makes that same service available to the public. Many private sales in Utah ask to see a CFP as part of the sale because a permit means the other person isn’t a restricted person who cannot possess weapons. However, there was no way to know if the permit was revoked due to an indictment or conviction after it was issued.
Now, the parties in a private sale input their permit number, and it responds with either “Valid” or “Not Valid.” The tool does not display the permit holder’s name or address, nor if the permit was revoked or simply expired. I checked a few random permit numbers and one came back as Not Valid. I have no idea whose permit this is, nor why it is not valid. The structure prevents a bad actor from compiling some sort of database of CFP holders.
The Private Party Firearm Sale Serial & CFP Check tool can also check a gun’s serial number to see if it was reported stolen. This is always a concern in private sales. I ran one of my review guns (which I know came directly from a manufacturer to my FFL, then to me) and it came back with no result. The website does note that multiple guns may have the same serial number (e.g. a Winchester and Remington, or older guns with repeated serial numbers on different models), so this is not a 100% accurate search. But it would err on the side of showing non-stolen guns as stolen rather than the reverse.
This tool only checks Utah permits, but the serial number feature presumably pulls data from the national database. The searches also can take a while to run. Even with those limitations, this is an excellent tool for private sellers who want to perform some due diligence.
Read the full article here
