I was recently stopped for making a rolling stop in a residential area. When I gave the policeman my license, he noticed my carry permit in my wallet and asked if I had a gun. I told him I did, and told him where it was. He asked to run the serial number to see if it came back stolen. I told him it is a Glock with a round in the chamber, and I wanted to make sure he would not touch the trigger since they have no external safety. He pointed out that his service weapon was a Glock and said he was well aware of how they work.
I gave him the gun and he ran the number and gave it back to me, wrote me a warning for not quite stopping at the sign, and we went our separate ways.
Now I'm wondering, what is in the record of that encounter, and what happens to it? Prior to that stop, my name was connected to that serial number in one official place I know about: forms kept by the selling dealer until they were lawfully destroyed.
It sounded to me like he was reading the serial number to someone who was typing it into a computer. I don't know a lot of things here:
Does the Punta Gorda police department now have my name connected to the serial number of my carry gun on their computer system?
If so, what happens to that information? Who has official access to it, and how secure is it against unofficial access? Is this info shared with other levels of government?
The officer was nice, and did not seem anti-gun at all. He did not seem to approve of keeping a round in the chamber. I'm aware of differing opinions on that subject and did not want to argue the point at the time, so I just shrugged. Other than that small difference of opinion, I had no problem with his actions or anything he said. I definitely did NOT get the impression that I was dealing with an anti-gun cop who was trying to collect serial numbers for later confiscation, and I do not want this to go in a tinfoil direction.
I'm just a bit concerned about information in the information age. The government does not really have a good way of knowing which guns I own, and I like it that way. Now one government has my name attached to one serial number, and I don't really like that.