Valuable WWII Gun at Police Buy-Back

ABC News Blog ^ | Dec 10, 2012 | Annie Rose Ramos

[jneesy]

Just like a scene out of "Antiques Roadshow," a woman in Hartford, Conn., turned in an old rifle to her local police station's gun buy-back, only to discover the gun was worth anywhere from $20,000 to $25,000. The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, inherited the gun from her father who had brought it home with him from Europe as a memento from World War II.

[jneesy]

happy to see the officers look out for the lady's interest and the interests of history couldve gone to the smelter just as easily

[from occupied ga]

I've always wondered how the police can buy guns BACK if they didn't sell them to you in the first place. From my understanding of the English language, you can only buy something back from someone if you sold it to them in the first place. Or is this just the liberal viewpoint that everything you have comes from the government, and rather than just take your property, they buy it?

[vladimir998]

22 lr version for less than $400 = https://www.americantactical.us/3108/detail.html

[rellimpank]

—if it’s not a “dewat” ,I suspect it is not going to a museum but with the usual lack of knowledge displayed in the reporting, one doesn’t know-—

[Renfield]

Even an inoperable StG44 is illegal to own without a class-3 permit. It’s a wonder the officers didn’t confiscate it from her.

I don’t know how she could legally sell it, either. Look for the BATF officers to come knocking on her door.

[Lockbar]

Renfield is correct. Unless this gun has previously been registered with the BATF as either a fully functional weapon ($200 registration tax) or as a registered inoperable DEWAT de-activated war trophy ($5 transfer tax) then this gun is completely illegal and cannot be sold to anybody. The police department can confiscate the weapon and then contact the ATF and have the gun registered to their department, but it can never be sold down the line to the public. It can only be transferred to another law enforcement agency in the future, forever. The only other choice is that the law enforcement can deactivate the weapon and have it transferred to a museum with the approval of the BATF. But no museum would pay much for a MP-55/STG-44. Fully operational and registered MP-44’s usually sell for between $15,000-$20,000 now a days.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Where can you get ammo for something like this? It is not, to my knowledge, available.

***happy to see the officers look out for the lady's interest***

Years ago, at a gun buy back, a widow woman brought in her husband's two guns. The policeman on duty recognized them as WWI Colt .45 1911 and a near mint 1903. He told her to take them to an appraiser and get the real value of them as they were collector's items.

After she left with the rifle and pistol still in her possession, the officer was REPRIMANDED for letting two guns get away.

[fella]

I think you’ve hit the nail on the head.

[TheBattman]

Renfield is correct. Unless this gun has previously been registered with the BATF as either a fully functional weapon ($200 registration tax) or as a registered inoperable DEWAT de-activated war trophy ($5 transfer tax) then this gun is completely illegal and cannot be sold to anybody. The police department can confiscate the weapon and then contact the ATF and have the gun registered to their department, but it can never be sold down the line to the public. It can only be transferred to another law enforcement agency in the future, forever. The only other choice is that the law enforcement can deactivate the weapon and have it transferred to a museum with the approval of the BATF. But no museum would pay much for a MP-55/STG-44. Fully operational and registered MP-44’s usually sell for between $15,000-$20,000 now a days.

Isn't it just grand how it was perfectly legal for her father to bring it home as a "war trophy " (something that is now illegal to do), she inherited it and was made an instant criminal by legislation/BATF for doing absolutely NOTHING.

When the government suddenly decides to make what is legal, illegal, causing citizens to become instant felons for doing absolutely nothing - something is wrong. Sounds more like a dictatorship than a Democracy or Constitutional Republic.

Of course - it seems like the argument could also be made that any otherwise law-abiding citizen should be able to own this weapon, or any other firearm manufactured under the 2nd Amendment. The libs like to bring up the "Well-regulated Militia" bit - but the intent of the founding fathers was that households have firearms suitable to defending our nation, that there is always an informal "army" with arms. The muskets of the Revolution are the AR's of today.

This poor woman... Sad.

[TurboZamboni]

I wonder where we’ll go to ‘buy back’ our freedom?

[Sherman Logan]

"If the gun had been in the closet loaded, any second you could hit the wrong level and discharge a fatal round...

At the time the officers received the gun, it was in such disrepair that it was inoperable, unable to shoot a bullet even if the gun had been loaded.

Not being a gun expert, I can't see how both these statements can be true.

[TheBattman]

And that, my FRiend, is the point...