Steve Johnson

Founder and Dictator-In-Chief of TFB. A passionate gun owner, a shooting enthusiast and totally tacti-uncool. Favorite first date location: any gun range. Steve can be contacted here.

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  • WoodenPlank

    Oof. Might be worth $30,000, but only if it was in the NFA registry. If it’s not in the registry, though, could she even sell it to someone legally?

    • ¤

      if its not registered, no. but I assume it was or they probably would have arrested her.

      • WoodenPlank

        I find it hard to believe someone would have a registered and transferrable full auto yet be that clueless about what they had.

      • http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/ Steve (The Firearm Blog)

        Its a gun buy back event. People are given amnesty to hand in guns no questions asked. It looks like the police took possession of the gun but are allowing her to sell it to someone they approve of.

      • ThomasD

        Might be a DEWAT, otherwise without NFA paperwork I cannot see how it can be sold.

        The locals are not compelled to enforce Federal law, but they cannot absolve her of it.

    • ¤

      they said it was her dads, she was probably an Idiot anti gunner or just very uninformed and wanted a quick buck rather than looking the gun up and selling it for something better than a 50-100 dollar gift card.

      • banner man

        Or maybe in a crappy economy there are bills to pay and mouths to feed….unless you want them to chow down on German steel.

  • ¤

    JESUS CHRIST OH GOD HOW ARE PEOPLE THIS DUMB???

  • ¤

    im just glad the cops knew what it was, thank god…

  • TangledThorns

    I’m sure there are a lot of widows that have no idea what their husband’s weapons are worth when he dies. My neighbor was like that but I gave a good deal to her for the several hundreds of hollow point 9mm +P ammo he never used before he died from cancer.

  • Sean

    Thank GOD the officers recognized the rifle and saved it from a fate like this WWII 1911.

    • Rers

      Ahhhhh so painful to watch… What an idiot!

    • W

      dear jesus! all that is holy and right….

      i guess it “is” his to do with it however he pleases. still. im sure that would make his grandfather proud *rolls eyes.

    • TangledThorns

      Only in San Francisco…

    • Bryan S.

      Traitors…

      thats the nicest thing I can say.

    • mosinman

      THIS IS TERRIBLE!!!!! forgive them Father for they know not what they do……

    • David/Sharpie

      I cried a little…..

  • Andrew

    No amount of elegant articulation of the keyboard can express the rage I am feeling right now.

    • John

      Why would you be mad? It’s a beautiful gun and it’s going to a caring, not to mention rich, home now.

      • Jeff

        It also makes you wonder, if stuff like this almost got destroyed, what actually did… I can picture a Kongsberg 1911 or HK41 with a push pin hole slipping recognition and being tossed into the shredder

      • Bryan S.

        Because its going to a museum, out of the hands of the public, most likely. Probably will end up gathering dust in an NRA vault, another pre-86 out of the reach of the citizenry.

    • W

      it could have been worse…a lot worse.

      reminds me of bosnia and recovering WWII surplus MG42s and other collectibles only for them to be hammered and squished.

  • LowCapacity

    Did anyone else get an Officer Farva vibe from the “gun historian” cop?

  • James Rich

    The police “allowed” her to sell it? That sounds a bit concerning to me.

    • http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/ Steve (The Firearm Blog)

      It is a gun buy back event, not gun show ;) She handed it in to them, in exchange for something (amnesty and probably a shopping gift voucher). They are being very kind to allow her to sell it.

  • Bob Esposito

    Mr. Ricker posed a very noble point regarding the existence of handguns. I wonder if John Ricker would be asking the same “moral” question if one of his family members was the victim of a violent crime, or even worse, murdered by another “human being”? Thank God we live in a free country! Well… for the time being anyway.

  • http://www.tacticaltshirts.com Tacticaltshirts.com

    I take heart from stories like this. It gives me hope that not everything is destroyed by “bureaucrats”. As for the Pre-86 rule on registration, I can’t say what they did or how it was handled.

    I will say that I am aware of one case where someone unintentionally came into possession of some M2 Browning Machine Guns. That person was friends with their local law-enforcement chief. ATF was contacted and they worked it out. I won’t way specifically how or to what end, but the good guys won and the law was happy.

    Thank god.

    TTR

  • Carlos U.

    Well, that guy’s gonna miss that pistol when the Zombie apppocalypse happens!

  • Jeff

    That woman’s dad must be rolling in his grave. I would if my kid tried to sell a priceless relic for a couple bills

  • Nick Mew

    If one needs money to feed the family, selling a rifle for $30.000 is still better than chewing on German steel or starving.

    • Hans the angry Aryan

      IS GERMAN STEEL NICHT GOOD GENUG FUR FOOLISH AMERICAN CAPITALIST!?! HAS PUNY AMERICAN OF UNDESIREABLE BLOOD NOT YET EVOLVED THE GUT OF ARYAN UBERMENSCH!?!

      YOU BE THANKFUL FOR GIFT OF STEEL FROM GREAT FUHRER FOR CHILDREN TO CHEW ON. LET THEM SUCKLE AT THE TEET OF TEUTONIC ARYAN TECHNICAL PROWESS. MAYBE CONSUMING STEEL OF THE VATERLAND WILL DO SOME GOOD FOR MIXED BLOOD AMERIKANER.

      THE STEEL AND WOOD OF A FINE ASSAULT GEWHER OF DEUTSCHLAND HAS ENOUGH TO SUSTAIN A WEAK AMERIKANISCH ARMY FOR WEEKS HAD THEY THE SUPERIOR BLOOD OF ARYAN DEUTSCHER.

      • Hans the angry Aryan

        FOOLISH AMERIKANER GIVES MIR THUMBS DOWN AND DOES NOT UNDERSTAND SUPERIOR ARYAN HUMOR. THE FURHER HIMSELF HAS COMMISSIONED THIS HUMOR. AMERIKANS ONLY LAUGH AT SELF-DEPRECIATING HUMOR OF REDNECKS AND UNDESIRABLES.

        I DARE YOU TO FIGHT MIT ME IN BATTLE OF WITS FOR YOU SHALL LOSE TO WITTY DEUTSCH HUMOR!!

      • The Bear

        I give you a B for comedy, but a D- for German.

      • Hans the angry Aryan

        I didn’t want to put too much German in there otherwise people wouldn’t be able to read it. I was sort of going for a German, speaking English, but so furious that he slips back to German every couple words.
        I also omitted umlauts because I couldn’t be arsed to look up the alt codes while doing this on the fly.

  • bbmg

    A offensive as the potential destruction of a historical weapon is, it doesn’t even come close to the condescending tone of the article.

    “But you might be wondering right now, how did a German soldier’s weapon wind up in the hands of an American?”

    Actually I am wondering, patronizing American news media, how on earth could this possibly have happened?!

    • Jacob

      Trophies have been banned for several decades. I’m not sure why it be a negative thing for them to explain to people that taking trophies during WWII was both common and legal.

      People joke on this lady for turning this thing in but people commonly used to sell comic books worth thousands of dollars, art and many types of rare antiques simply due to a recognition of value. For example two spiderman covers recently sold $300,000 and $650,000. As far as I know both were available at a fraction of that price for years yet nobody bothered to ask or offer and that was from a PROFESSIONAL dealer.

      To mock someone for turning in that gun says something rather significantly negative about yourself than the person that did it. After all if it was a rusty old Mosin she probably would have scored double its value on a turn in.

      • bbmg

        Not fair to mock the woman or indeed anyone without an interest in historical firearms for not spotting this gem, I would happily feed my dog from a Ming vase and have no idea of its monetary or historical value.

        My disagreement was with the implication that the reader could not conceive how a firearm used in Europe almost seven decades ago somehow made its way across the Atlantic.

        If that is the case, no one should visit the United States Army Ordnance Museum and see the German 28cm K5 railway gun lest their head explode while they wonder how something from the same era weighing over 200 tons came to be in the US.

    • El Duderino

      I always assume non-gun writers know nothing about firearms and allow myself to be pleasantly surprised when they get something correct. I have seen accomplished “action fiction” writers make bonehead mistakes like “cocked the hammer back on his Glock 9mm.” Article writing journalists don’t even get that far.

  • Nicks87

    Thank god for some level headed cops. Many Police Depts around the country would have just sent it to the chopper. It makes me feel good that there are still officers out there who can think for themselves. Instead of just going along with what their criminal politician bosses want them to do.

    • Phil White

      Nicks,

      I think my first reaction would be passing out followed by a nice long look then tell her to get that $30,000!
      The only problem with ATF is if this gun has never been registered before I don’t believe it can be now and they WILL take it and that sucks!

      • Nicks87

        It would be really hard for me to not just grab it and run for my squad car. Lol!

        (just kidding for those of you without personalities).

  • http://schwarmenius.wordpress.com/ Schwarmenius

    Agreed on the thanks to the sharp-eyed cops here!

    It saddens me all the same to think of how many sewer caps in my nearby Chicago are made of things that changed history, saved a life, or were simply held very dear by their late owners, all reduced to slag for the mere political gain of “guns we got off the streets.”

  • Mike Knox

    I wonder how that day went: “hi-point-scrap, glock-scrap, hi-point-scrap, taurus-scrap, hi-point-scrap, HOLY SHIT AN StG44!!!”

  • denny

    Luckily, this happened in America. It will grace a museum or private collection. Be it in Canada, given the antigun sentiment, it ended up destroyed – guaranteed.

    • David/Sharpie

      Actually a friend of mine successfully fought the RCMP to keep his Grandfathers war bring back, he just can’t touch it, or buy ammo for it.

      • El Duderino

        A gun you can’t touch or shoot? WTF good is that?

      • ShiningKnight

        Which state? And why can he not touch it if he has the paperwork for it?

    • http://dukeleto.deviantart.com/ Dukeleto

      I don’t believe that’s true, any war museum would be thrilled to have this. Even over here in the UK I suspect the authorities would see sense & make sure it ended up in a collection.

  • gunslinger

    crap. my comment didn’t get loaded.

    anyway, just wanted to say that it’s nice that there are still people out there who understand that not all guns are bad.

  • claymore

    Well it’s an NFA weapon no doubt about it. Unless it was amnestied way back when it is totally a violation of NFA regs to have it and or sell it. The nice policeman is helping her commit a crime. And it doesn’t matter if the police took control of it it still can’t be sold as is.

    • claymore

      Forgot to add: in addition it’s an assault weapon and if not registered with the Connecticut authorities back when the program started it still illegal for her to own and or sell under Connecticut law.

  • Lance

    Well some cops where good in this tape they knew to save history. Lucky jerk cops in NY or in the peoples republic of Kaliforina would have scrapped it anyway.

    Only down side of the STG-44 in civi hands now, is ammo is hard to find and is EXPENSIVE!!!

  • leftcoast

    The $30K valuation would be absurd unless already on the US National Firearms Act registry. Unless amnesty registered in 1968 or so (the government uncharacteristically allowed some leeway on amnesty period expiration) it is contraband. They are probably allowing it to transfer to a museum collection, but there won’t be any $30K in that.

    Probably a lot more interesting war souvenirs will be coming to light as the World War 2 veterans pass away.

  • mosinman

    couldn’t this be considered grandfathered?

  • http://www.pukeandthegang.com Puke

    What happened to the (what appeared to be) M14 at the beginning of the news piece sitting on the table?

    • Lance

      Those where police department weapons as well as the M-16A1 if you look at the wall in the Police armory you’ll see more weapons like the other two. They had them out to compare weapons with the reporters.

  • Pb

    $30k seems like a stretch, especially since my local gun dealer has one for $20k. http://www.impactguns.com/germanmp-43-25-kurz-mp-43.aspx

  • Chase

    Steve, you might want to check the links. They appear to have been copypasted from Reddit, and did not translate properly.

  • John Doe

    I want these cops in my town. And the rifle too, I guess.

  • mikee

    Hoplophobia at its best!

  • Anonymoose

    I KNOW WHAT I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS.

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  • Riot

    B*tch be barred from Valhalla

  • Riot

    B***h be barred from Valhalla

  • Jimmy

    the reporter is hot.