Richmond Times-Dispatch: Gun used in woman’s death registered to estranged husband:
The gun that was “used and found” at the scene of a Forest woman’s slaying was registered to her estranged husband, according to a search warrant filed by the Bedford County Sheriff’s Office.
[…]
“The firearm used and found at the scene was registered to Wesley Earnest,” the warrant said. “There is knowledge that there are items related to the weapon found at the death scene along with the motive for Jocelyn Earnest’s death that are located at this residence.”
Uh…the last time I check (and the NRA concurs) Virginia doesn’t require the registration of any type of firearms (except for machine guns [a gun that shoots automatically], “sawed-off” shotgun [a shotgun with a barrel less than 18 inches], or “sawed-off” rifles [a rifle with a barrel less than 16 inches].
Now, they could be referring to Form 4473 from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) which is kept permanently by any firearms dealer with a Federal Firearms License (FFL) when they sell a firearm.
However, there is a big difference between a gun being registered with someone, and a 4473 saying that weapon was sold to the person. If a private person purchased a firearm from a FFL and completed the required paperwork (including the 4473), and then proceeded to sell the weapon to someone else, the private citizen would not have to complete any paperwork and the gun could soon become “untraceable”.
I would except someone at RT-D to get the facts wrong, but for a trained police officer to be that incorrect is down right scary. And the Circuit Court actually issued a search warrant with a mistake that big? I’m sure the suspect’s lawyer is going to have a field day with this.