If you are in Florida you can go here and check out your purchase,

http://pas.fdle.state.fl.us/pas/item/displayGunSearch.a

Just do it from the library

I didn't know you could check a firearm number from the library...that one's good to know. I'm still thinking the police wouldn;t have a problem running the number for you. Of course, if it came up stolen or wanted, they might want to have a little chat with you about where the seller and gun is

The last time I bought a pistol from a private seller was in about 1991, and that was from a Texas game warden, so I didn;t worry about particulars. But I did get a receipt.

The last rifle I bought private was probably in the early 80's. I got a receipt but was way too dumb back then to think of having the serial number checked. Plus, the seller was in his home, with family, and a super-nice collection of guns. I would never have suspected anything wrong with the rifle.

Sorry, I meant use the computer at the library to access that web site. No use being all private sale and all only to give up your IP to the web site.

And wear a hat with a brim...

And a high collar on your trench coat.

I know this is a fairly old thread, but I can't hold back giving my $.02 worth. I was a Fed LEO for 29 years, stationed at various offices around the US, now retired. I worked with, not for, the FBI and ATF among others and numerous State, County and City agencies. I had to "trace" firearms ownership on various occassions. First time, in my naievete, I asked an associate with ATF for help, he just laughed. We went to the gun store and looked through volumes of 3-ring binders full of forms in random order until we found the record of sale for the gun of interest. No computers, no high level gov't intrigue in Wash DC, none of the TV crap. Subsequent cases involved the same review of binders full of randomly filed forms, but without ATF "help". That's still the way it goes for "tracing" a gun. ATF can, if pressed by a high profile case, check lists of serial numbers by maker to see where a new gun was shipped for initial sale, after that it's check through the 3-ring binders again.
It's good advice to check with local PD on a gun you're buying from an unknown private party, and no matter who you buy from, get a bill of sale or receipt of some kind showing who sold it to you and when. Other than that, don't sweat it.
If the blue helmeted troops do come looking for your guns, it's going to be due to something other than your gun buying history. It will also be time to produce those copies of the receipts you made when you sold them in the parking lot of those gun shows. IF you're still living there instead of in some cave in the mountains.

All my guns sank in a boating accident.

I sold all my guns to pay for my Y2K supplies, back 1999!

I posted this question in another forum. How well do you suppose the records are kept. I have two rifles that were purchased by my father 25 years ago in a store called Hecks which went out of business 15 years ago. It was a K-mart style department store. They were also purchased in a different state from where he lives and from where I now live. How long do you suppose those records are kept and how well do you think they can track them across state lines that didn't require anyone to be a resident and the store went out of business and probably trashed all their records in the process if they even still had them. I'm sure there are lots of other people who bought similar.