Question for gun owners/enthusiast?
 

I recently inherited, among other things, some handguns and rifles from my father. My mother didn't want them in the house with my 14 year old brother and my sister and her fiance have no use for them. The rifles for the time being will stay with my father-in-law as he is an avid hunter and has several gun safes. However, the one I would like to keep is a Ruger Police Service Six .357 Magnum. The problem is he inherited it from his father and it has no paperwork or permits whatsoever. I know absolutely nothing about guns (I had to take them to a friend to be sure they weren't loaded) but I would like to keep this one in particular because of the family history.

Is it possible to get the required paperwork now that it has passed down to me? Or will they assume it's stolen if I waltz into a gun store trying to get it registered? If it helps I live in the state of Tennessee.

Thanks ahead of time.

Laws are going to vary state to state and I'm not sure what the procedure is in Tennessee. I would call a gun shop and ask them.

Edited to add: Despite popular belief, you do not need to register a hand gun in most states, but I would check just to be sure.

Thanks David!

you dont need to register a handgun, if it was bequeathed to you, it's yours, the 2nd amendment baby!

X2. The only thing you need to register for is a concealed carry permit if you plan on going that route, which doesn't seem to be the case.

Thanks guys.

Is it that easy there? Good if it is.
Here in Mass it's much tougher. FID card, pistol permit, and maybe local requirements to get that permit like gun club membership or a gun safety course. There's a few sorts of permits and what will be issued is up to the police chief of the individual town. Not having a pistol permit while owning one is supposed to be a mandatory year. But then, posessing spent cartridges is also technically illegal here without an FID although I've never heard of it being charged all on its own. (Usually it's added in along with worse stuff like drugs or robbery)

Just checked, wow that's nice and easy

http://www.nraila.org/statelawpdfs/TNSL.pdf

And our stuff to deal with...
http://www.nraila.org/statelawpdfs/MASL.pdf


Steve B