I'd love to know what action mine saw in WWII or who it was issued to but I guess that's impossible to find out? Since mine is an early serial number M1 with obvious war time patina. It would be interesting to see what, if anything, is provided. One thing for sure is the associated transfer forms for that pistol are not tax records. Regarding the 1911 pistol with the IRS serial number: I have never thought about doing a FOIA request with the ATF on a Title 1 firearm.
My advice to all owners is to give a FOIA request a try. Unfortunately, the IRS and/or ATF have lost registration records in the past. I say generally because the FOIA response is only as good as the Disclosure Clerk doing the research and the availability of old records to search. A FOIA packet will generally provide you a road map of the number of past owners. Guns sold at auction are difficult to trace. That is when a buyer has the most leverage. That is why I always recommend to obtain this information prior to the sale being finalized.
Often times former owners or dealers do not want to divulge the past ownership history. It is possible to trace the past history of these registered guns by contacting the former owners. But some do! The cost is usually free and it is the only game in town.Īll that said, every owner of a Thompson submachine gun knows where they purchased or obtained the gun. I readily agree some FOIA packets do not provide a wealth of information. In addition, I have found letters from the past owners to the IRS asking about registration status and transferability often reveal the original purchaser because the letterhead is not redacted. Yes, the forms are usually heavily redacted but dates of registration, titles and form types will often tell a pretty good story of the past history. The best way to describe a FOIA request and subsequent response is you don't know what you don't know. Of course, there was no requirement for registration prior to June 1934 so the date of acquisition for Colt Thompsons sold before that date must be obtained from known shipping records or from information supplied by the owner on the initial IRS Form 1 Registration of Firearms form. Most owners for machine guns commercially sold in the USA, i.e., Colt's, Savage Commercials, 1928ACs, NACs, etc., want to know the original purchaser and date of acquisition and/or registration. A Freedom of Information Act request on Class 3 type weapons is really the start of the process to learn the past history of the registered firearm.
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