Bob Ford attempts to convince his father that he was a part of the express office robbery in Kansas. He tells him that he lost his rifle on the way out of town and that the serial number can be used to trace the rifle to him. Record keeping for the sales of firearms in the 1880's did not require store owners to keep records of the acquisition and disposition of firearms in those days. Serial numbers on firearms would not be a government requirement for another 86 years when the gun control act of 1968 came to be.