gun registration

Question
I live in Minnesota.  Can I go on-line and find out what guns are registered in my name? My husband and I have several and some are in my name.  Is there a registration list by model and serial number that I can check?

Answer
In the U.S. it is generally illegal for any government agency to maintain a database or registry of gun owners or purchases. There are certain exceptions to this. Class 3 weapons ("destructive device," e.g. machine guns, grenade launchers, etc) must be registered. But ordinary firearms need not be registered, and in fact it is illegal to register them.

While some states have ignored these laws, and have even been successful at their breaking of the law, the NRA has generally served as a watchdog and has been successful in having the courts order the dismantling of such illegal databases.

If guns were purchased through a gun store, the only permanent record of that purchase would be at the gun store. In the event that a gun is recovered that was used in a crime, the police will contact the manufacturer who will have information on what distributor the gun was sold to, the distributor will have information on what shop the gun was sold to, and the shop will have information on what person the gun was sold to.

However, my cursory research of Minnesota law indicates that there is nothing to prohibit private sales to qualified persons (knowingly selling a gun to someone prohibited by law from owning one is a federal offense), and upon investigation of the of the first purchaser of the gun, the police often find that the gun had been stolen or sold years ago.

This is a very round about way of saying, no, there is no way to go online and find out to whom guns are "registered" to, because under US law it is generally illegal to register guns. If you know the shop they were purchased at, you can go back to them and ask for a copy of the original bill of sale if it is in yours or your husband's name. They may help you out, or they may charge you a small fee for doing so. But since they may have records that go back for decades, unless you can narrow it down for them (month and year of purchase), you probably will not be able to convince them to go back through years of sales to find out who the gun was sold to.