Did you explain to the shop student the destruction he wrought? Hope that hangs around his neck like the Ancient Mariner's albatross.
I did. . . I tod him he took a $25,000 to $30,000 collector's item gun (at that time) and turned into a $500 to $1000 piece of kitschy art that I didn't want in my store. I didn't want it becaus too many of my customers would have been just as upset and pissed off as I was about what he'd done to one of the rarest and most desirable collector's pieces in existence. I'd spend too much time talking about it and defending why I had it. Truthfully, the kid was ignorant, I was much more irate at the shop teacher who let him do it without getting the gun appraised. That gun would have paid for his college tuition back then! It was almost new condition!