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Worcester gun buyback snags piece of history(MA)
telegram.com ^ | 9 December, 2012 | George Barnes

Posted on 12/10/2012 7:52:33 AM PST by marktwain

WORCESTER — The Guns for Goods program succeeded in getting more guns off the streets, but it also netted a piece of history.

“We got a very unusual vintage Japanese rifle from World War II with a bayonet,” said Dr. Michael P. Hirsh, chief of the Division of Pediatric Surgery and Trauma at UMass Memorial Medical Center.

The program, which offered both gift certificates from Wegmans and free flu shots to people who anonymously turned in guns, netted 102 weapons in two days. Mr. Hirsh said 34 were collected yesterday to go with 68 collected Dec. 1. The collection yesterday was held at the office of the city Division of Public Health.

Most of the weapons will be destroyed, but the antique weapon may find a new home.

(Excerpt) Read more at telegram.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; US: Massachusetts
KEYWORDS: banglist; ma; turnin; worcester
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An interesting admission that the administrators of the program admit that they are able to choose which firearms are destroyed and which are not.

Massachusetts requires state paperwork to transfer firearms, which make private sales at such turnins difficult.

1 posted on 12/10/2012 7:52:46 AM PST by marktwain
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To: marktwain

Let me get a buddy in here and check it out. But if it was made after 1898, I can't buy it.

2 posted on 12/10/2012 7:59:36 AM PST by ConservativeStatement (Having an abortion is "progressive"?)
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To: ConservativeStatement

That guy annoys me. I know he has to make a profit, but he irritates me for some reason. And I don’t like it when someone has too many “buddies”.


3 posted on 12/10/2012 8:07:29 AM PST by beaversmom
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To: marktwain

Too bad the people that had the gun didn’t realize what they had.


4 posted on 12/10/2012 8:09:46 AM PST by beaversmom
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To: beaversmom

“I have the original, authenticated hand-written Gettysburg Address...”

“We’ll, you know, I’ll have to matte and frame it, make room in the display case.....I’ll give you fifty bucks.”


5 posted on 12/10/2012 8:12:40 AM PST by daler
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To: daler
“I have the original, authenticated hand-written Gettysburg Address...”

“We’ll, you know, I’ll have to matte and frame it, make room in the display case.....I’ll give you fifty bucks.”

LOL! Exactly!!!

6 posted on 12/10/2012 8:14:38 AM PST by beaversmom
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To: daler

“I have the original, authenticated hand-written Gettysburg Address...
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Don’t see how that is possible.
I have it.
In fact I memorized it at an early age.

A. Lincoln
12 Main St
Gettysburg Penn


7 posted on 12/10/2012 8:16:44 AM PST by xrmusn (6/98 "It is virtually impossible to clean the pond as long as the pigs are still crapping in it")
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To: marktwain

I own such a rifle. An Arisaka type 99, 7.7mm bolt action, which I inherited from my father. He acquired it as part of the US occupation force in Japan. I couldn’t imagine turning it in to some government wankers.

Dad kept it under his bed, and us kids enjoyed playing with it when we had the chance. The tip of the firing pin had been broken out of it, by the USMC according to Dad. The chrysanthemum had been X’d over by the Japanese before surrendering it.

I let them display it at Fort McArthur Military Museum for a few years, until someone tried to steal it from the display case. Now it’s back under MY bed... which is where Dad liked it. :)


8 posted on 12/10/2012 8:18:23 AM PST by MarineBrat (Better dead than red!)
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To: marktwain

Worth a couple hundred bucks, tops.


9 posted on 12/10/2012 8:19:54 AM PST by Bubba Ho-Tep ("More weight!"--Giles Corey)
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To: marktwain

Oh, BTW... I wish I had the bayonet. :)


10 posted on 12/10/2012 8:22:33 AM PST by MarineBrat (Better dead than red!)
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To: marktwain
“We got a very unusual vintage Japanese rifle from World War II with a bayonet,”

Probably an Ariska 99 with a bayonet. I think I have a few of those around here.

11 posted on 12/10/2012 8:23:52 AM PST by Fido969
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To: marktwain
This is the second such article in just a few days; the other one dealt with an unregistered German STG44 that was turned in. The cops told the woman to contact a museum that could accept it, rather than see it destroyed.

So yes, as we've always suspected - not all of the guns that are handed in are necessarily going to be destroyed.

12 posted on 12/10/2012 8:25:08 AM PST by Charles Martel (Endeavor to persevere...)
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To: Bubba Ho-Tep

>>Worth a couple hundred bucks, tops.

Maybe so. From what I have learned over the years about mine is that they were given to just about any occupation force Leatherneck that wanted one.


13 posted on 12/10/2012 8:25:23 AM PST by MarineBrat (Better dead than red!)
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To: marktwain
"...to people who anonymously turned in guns"

Great way to dump a gun used in a crime.
14 posted on 12/10/2012 8:26:21 AM PST by jaydubya2
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To: marktwain
I don't think Arisakas are particularly valuable, esp. with a defaced Imperial Chrysanthemum marking. An original bayonet might be worth more than the rifle!
Or, if they were issued as set, with matching serial numbers, the rifle/bayonet set might be worth something.
15 posted on 12/10/2012 8:34:01 AM PST by Little Ray (Get back to work. Your urban masters need their EBTs refilled.)
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To: MarineBrat

When you consider how the thing may have been used, in New Guinea, Batavia, the Philippines, Burma, China—wherever, I wouldn’t want one in my house.
Many thanks to Harry Truman for dropping atomic bombs on them and ending the war in the Pacific. The Japanese were evil: See `Knights of the Bushido.’


16 posted on 12/10/2012 8:50:34 AM PST by tumblindice (America's founding fathers: All armed conservatives.)
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To: daler
My main peeve with "Pawn Stars" is that when it comes to negotiating a price, the shop owners always ask, "How much you want for it?".

And the fools who are selling always answer with a price. The only appropriate answer should be, "How much do you think it is worth?".

The first person to name a price loses.

17 posted on 12/10/2012 8:56:23 AM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts (Political correctness does not legislate tolerance; it only organizes hatred.)
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To: tumblindice

You may not want one in your house, but if your father had helped to rid the world of that evil, and brought one home as a souvenir of war, you might feel different.


18 posted on 12/10/2012 8:56:40 AM PST by MarineBrat (Better dead than red!)
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To: MarineBrat

***if your father had helped to rid the world of that evil, and brought one home as a souvenir of war, you might feel different.***

The capture and display of enemy weapons has always been a proof that the enemy was defeated and you may have been there.

The Charge of the Light Brigade was done to prevent the Russians from moving captured British artillery. They charged up the wrong valley.

My dad almost started Patton’s war with the Russians when he tried to buy a Russian Officer’s pistol with a pack of cigarettes. The Russian officer was highly offended.


19 posted on 12/10/2012 9:22:36 AM PST by Ruy Dias de Bivar (The parasites now outnumber the producers.)
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To: jaydubya2

Such foolish, foolish people! I don’t own a gun and could not see to shoot one if my life depended on it. But one day those people who turned in their weapons may wish they had them back.


20 posted on 12/10/2012 9:25:09 AM PST by ruesrose (The Anchor Holds)
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