If you don’t have the original recipt for the purchase of the firearm, you will rarely get it back.
Even if there is a federal form for the purchase, the locals will not look for the paperwork or release the firearm unless you can prove the gun was still yours and had not been reappropriated.
Shady cops will make the paper trail impossible if they want to and unless you want to spend thousands on a lawyer for a 300 dollar gun, the cops always win.
There is two types of law in America. the law on the books. And the unwritten above the law category that our government is operating at.
Exactly right. And I have had enough personal experience with corrupt, cynical, overbearing LE to realize it. Most of the LE establishment is OK, but a significant percentage isn't.