How Do You Register A Gun That Belongled To A Decesest Relaive

The issue of gun ownership has returned to the forefront after mass shootings at a Las Vegas country music festival in October and in a Texas church last month. About of the concerns revolve effectually restrictions on gun purchases and who can own what type of weapon.

Things could go a footling murky from a legal standpoint if you happen to inherit a gun from a loved one. In This week'southward Friday Forum, we look at the case of a Rockford woman who institute herself in such a state of affairs.

Holli Connell takes out her gun at her Rockford home and notes the design detail near the grip, which has a little etching of a squirrel. She says that's why she and her brothers affectionately referred to the .22-caliber burglarize equally "the squirrel gun." She says she inherited the gun from her father later on he died unexpectedly from surgery complications a few years ago.

"You know, information technology'due south funny," she said. "I don't really really think of myself as owning a gun. It's actually merely a keepsake from my father, is what information technology means to me."

Connell only shot the gun in one case merely for fun at a family farm belongings shortly after her father died. Later on that, she says, she put a lock on it and stored it.

"It was, I think, just more sentimental for me to do it, and and then I put it away," she said.

Things could take been complicated if Connell had not already had a Firearm Owners Identification – or FOID – carte du jour, when she inherited the squirrel gun, peculiarly since her begetter's expiry was unexpected.

"One mean solar day, my husband said, 'We should go a FOID bill of fare,'" Connell recalled, "and I'chiliad like, 'Cool,' and we did. It'southward really the only reason why I own a FOID card; I guess it's my right, then I did it. And then I didn't retrieve anything of information technology when I received the gun, because I ain a FOID bill of fare."

There are a scattering of people in Illinois who would non be eligible for a FOID card right off the bat, even if they inherited a firearm. That'due south according to Mark Jones, managing director of the National Police force Enforcement Partnership to Prevent Gun Violence. He besides is a former Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms federal agent.

"Bedevilled felons, people who take renounced their citizenship, illegal aliens, drug addicts or abusers, people who have been adjudicated with a mental illness and involuntarily committed [to a mental health institution], domestic abusers," he recited the list. "At that place'due south, I recollect, 9 categories."

Other categories include beingness dishonorably discharged from the Armed Forces or being under a restraining order, according to the Illinois Country Police Firearms Services Bureau website.

Connell says she didn't do much beyond getting the FOID card when she inherited the gun, since none of those forbidding categories applied to her. She said her mother died earlier her begetter, and she and her brothers technically inherited their father'southward estate.

"In Illinois, the only thing I know about Illinois police is that you lot don't actually transfer – y'all don't take to have a permit for a gun, because you have to have the FOID bill of fare," she said. "I didn't actually consider doing anything else also putting a gun lock on it and putting it away."

The fact that Connell's father didn't have a will at the time he died nevertheless made things a little more than complicated regarding technical ownership of the gun.

"If my dad actually had a volition, in that location would be an executor. There would be somebody that would be overseeing the belongings," Connell said. "And because of that, that person would then ain my dad's holding … only then they would take to transfer the gun to me.

"But my dad didn't have a volition, and his stuff merely came to me, then my dad couldn't transfer the gun to me – hence, why I really oasis't investigated much further on what to do. I only thought keeping information technology rubber and keeping it put away was my best pick."

That … forth with the proper land authorization.

"No matter what type of firearm, equally long every bit it is a functioning firearm and has a proper serial number and so forth, we're only concerned with whether or not the individual has a valid FOID carte," said Matt Boerwinkle, a master sergeant and Public Information Officeholder with the Illinois State Police.

He says anyone with a valid FOID card can possess firearms from a relative's manor, just he even so advises gun owners to remember ahead when information technology comes to who really would inherit the firearm.

"1 thing we always recommend to persons that ain firearms is to have a will and to outline in that will or delegate who is supposed to have responsible possession of the firearm, should they pass," Boerwinkle explained, "and comment that with make, model and series number of the weapon to exist transferred to some other individual."

But if a gun is nonfunctioning and will be used more as a display, Boerwinkle says a FOID card might not be necessary for someone who inherits that slice.

"So if a firearm is rendered inoperable – you know, the bolt permanently removed or trigger mechanism or whatever the case is where it becomes permanently inoperable – at that indicate, it's just basically a testify piece," he said, "so it actually ceases to be [as] a operation firearm at that point."

Boerwinkle says one living person who wants to give a gun to another living person can practise so by submitting a transfer notification on the Illinois Country Police Firearms Services Bureau website. He says both parties would still need FOID cards.

Onetime ATF Amanuensis Mark Jones says any firearm inheritances that cross state lines – say, if a relative from Illinois dies and a family unit member from Wisconsin inherits the gun – are likewise subject field to the other state's laws.

Correction (12/13/17): Connell's gun is a .22 caliber rifle, not a shotgun.