Sec. 3. (a) This section applies to firearms that are required to be registered in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record.

(b) Firearms shall be returned to the rightful owner at once following final disposition of the cause, if such return has not already occurred under the terms of IC 35-33-5, and if such owner remains lawfully entitled to possess such firearms according to applicable United States and Indiana statutes. If rightful ownership is not known, the law enforcement agency holding the firearm shall make a reasonable and diligent effort to ascertain the rightful ownership and cause the return of the firearm being held, providing the owner remains lawfully entitled to possess such firearms.

(c) Firearms that are not returnable under this section shall be at once delivered to:

(1) the sheriff's department of the county in which the offense occurred, unless subdivision (2) applies; or

(2) the city or town police force that confiscated the firearm if:

(A) a member of the city or town police force confiscated the firearm; and

(B) the city or town has a population of more than two thousand five hundred (2,500) and less than six hundred thousand (600,000);

following final disposition of the cause.

(d) When firearms are sent to a law enforcement agency under subsection (c), the law enforcement agency may upon request release the firearms to the state police department laboratory or other forensic laboratory administered by the state or a political subdivision (as defined in IC 36-1-2-13) for the purposes of research, training, and comparison in conjunction with the forensic examination of firearms evidence.

(e) The receiving law enforcement agency or laboratory shall cause the registry of such firearms in the United States National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record within thirty (30) days following receipt from the court.

(f) The court may order such firearms as are not returnable destroyed, specifying the exact manner of destruction and requiring the receiving law enforcement agency or laboratory to make due return to the ordering court the time, date, method of destruction, and disposition of the remains of the destroyed firearm.

(g) No portion of this section shall be construed as requiring the receiving law enforcement agency or laboratory to retain firearms which are inoperable or unserviceable, or which the receiving law enforcement agency or laboratory may choose to transfer as public property in the ordinary course of lawful commerce and exchange.

As added by P.L.311-1983, SEC.32. Amended by P.L.209-1986, SEC.3; P.L.57-1992, SEC.8; P.L.119-2012, SEC.168.