Retailer should have liability in my opinion
Scheels are good people and I expect they’ll make good on this if they haven’t already.
Lesson learned is never willingly let a cop investigate you regardless.
In order to get more eyes on this story, I’ve added the keyword Banglist.
I also suspect the NCIC system is flawed and didn't catch the registration of a weapon reported stolen. Can't have that truth come out.
As for the retailer having liability, they don't have access to police records. The police department that sold it, likely at auction to a good friend of the chief who then resold it, needs to be on the hook.
The Feds are also culpable. They lie about the NCIC check which clearly didn't work. If this man had bought a stolen firearm, how hard would it be to send him and Scheel's a letter?
Retail gun dealers are not required to check to see if AA used gun they are selling is stolen. I believe pawn shops are,
If you read the whole article, the dealer has no way to verify if a gun is stolen so how can they be held liable? The Feds have the info but have no method for a dealer to check the serial number to see if stolen.
What kind of idiots think it’s OK to send on a road bridge and shoot?
There is absolutely no reason why there should not be access where any person can run a firearm SN or vehicle VIN and be able to determine if it is stolen or not.
The feral Govt acts like this is 1965.
Serial numbers are not necessarily unique. I know of a fellow whose Winchester lever action was seized as stolen property only to find out (two years later) that it was some commemorative Winchester with the same S/N that was stolen. He eventually got his rifle back but it was pretty seriously trashed, rusty and banged up stock.
Manufacturers are under no obligation to use unique serial numbers and can reuse S/Ns