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.This is one of the complaints gun-rights folks have with gun buy-back programs. But, it seems the cops were on top of it.
The two officers conducting the gun buy-back, who are resident gun experts for the Hartford Police Department, informed the owner she was in possession of a Nazi Assault Rifle, the first of its kind, that dates back to 1944.
The unnamed owner of the gun has left the valuable artifact at the police station for safe keeping.
“We did not take the gun in for the gun buy-back program,” Crabtree said. “If we took it as part of the buy-back, we would have no choice but to destroy the gun. We don’t want to destroy that gun.”
The owner intends to sell the Sturmgewehr 44.
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
For once, a buy-back program got a gen-u-ine assault rifle. And what a beauty it is.
ReplyDeleteThe police officers should have instructed her to donate it to a museum. I wonder if the sale is to include overseas buyers?
DeleteDonate? How about sell? Or could you let tens of thousands of dollars go without noticing?
DeleteDid she (or her father) buy it from the Germans?
DeleteThat rifle truly does resemble the Type 56.
Type 56? Sorry, E.N., but the Chinese didn't invent everything. That's an original German Sturmgewehr 44--considered the first assault rifle (that's the translation of sturmgewehr, by the way). The AK-47, of which the Chinese Type 56 is a copy, was made by Kalashnikov. He claims that he didn't get much help from the German design, but then, the Russians claimed that about lots of technology that they magically came up with soon after their spies brought Western designs to them.
DeleteThe news article about this gun said that the woman's father brought the rifle back as a war trophy.
From what I know, M.T. Kalashnikov had invented the system which was later to be adopted as the Automat Kalashnikov 47, well before the Great Patriotic War had ended, and when he submitted his design for adoption as a battle rifle, although Josif Vissarionovich intervened and decreed that the design be rejected, due to his belief that soldiers would lose the detachable magazines, and instead ordered the adoption of a design proposed by Sergei Simonov, which is known as the SKS (USSR), Type 56 carbine (PRC), or Type 63 (DPRK). Later, of course, Kalhashnikov's design was adopted and (widely) produced. When Schmeisser was in the USSR, it is reported that he did in fact meet with Kalashnikov and comment on his (already completed) design. No cooperative effort was made, and by such the rifles function quite differently.
DeleteThe news article about this gun said that the woman's father brought the rifle back as a war trophy.
DeleteExactly. He didn't buy it, and she most certainly didn't. By surrendering the weapon to a museum, she is at no financial loss. The most she ought to expect should be a refund for the $200 NFA tax stamps which the U.S. Federal Government uses to licence the ownership of machineguns.
To borrow an idea from The Maltese Falcon, you might as well say that the rifle belongs to one A. Hitler and Company. Otherwise, it's the property of whoever has it.
DeleteI found the picture on Google. The one she turned in was it terrible shape, according to the article.
DeleteThe one in the video on this incident looked good.
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