Oh what a waste

[SeaCat]

On the local news tonight they talked about a gun buy back program the local police are doing. The weapons received will be checked for having been used in crimes, stored for six months then disposed of in a smelter.

I looked at the pictures of the weapons so far received and shuddered. Tal about a waste. The firearms turned in have included such weapons as vintage Winchesters, Lugers, M1 Garands and collectors grade shotguns. (I saw what looked like a Colt Revolving Shotgun in there, but the picture was bad.)

What the police need to do is after clearing these weapons from being used in crimes or stolen is sell them to collectors.

What do you think?

Cat

 

[R. Richard]

In Europe, when the Nazi's demanded that all weapons be turned in, the people had enough sense to turn in old, damaged weapons and hide the good stuff.

Since you only saw in TV, the weapons might not be what you think they are. There are cheap copies of vintage weapons. There are also Parabellum pistols, made by slave labor. Some of the slave labor pistols aren't safe to fire.

Then again,some of the idiots who populate our inner cities have no real feel for quality weapons. "If it aint full auto, it aint shit!"

 

[DesertPirate]

Always wanted a Garand
Any vintage Winchester shotgun is a dream

 

[redpaint]

I agree, that is just a wast. you can bet the guns trund in where not any That the bad guys use.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Always wanted a Garand
Any vintage Winchester shotgun is a dream

I got Gram'pa's M97. Some day, I'll get it restored and give it a try on geese.

 

[Weird Harold]

What the police need to do is after clearing these weapons from being used in crimes or stolen is sell them to collectors.

What do you think?

Cat

I'd rather see them donated to Museums than sold to collectors -- spiked or otherwise disabled, if applicable, but preserved for the taxpayers who paid for them rather than put back into circulation via collections being broken up or sold off.

 

[oggbashan]

I was in Australia when the authorities had their first gun amnesty since WWII.

The month-long event started quietly but then the press reporting became sillier by the day encouraging more and more people to dig out their old weaponry.

On day one the usual items handed in were WWI and WWII souvenirs that hadn't been used since but included a crate of Japanese hand grenades in an unstable condition.

On day two someone drove up to a rural police station during the night and left an anti-tank gun with ammunition blocking the front door.

By the end of the first week the press were speculating about what the largest weapon would be, after several field guns, a howitzer and a few tanks had been turned in.

I think that one of my distant relations took the prize. He had a redundant scrapyard that he intended to develop for housing. In that yard he had six large calibre (9.2 inch) naval guns that had been used for coastal defence in WWI. They were obsolete even then but he still had over 100 rounds each of HE and Armour-piercing dating back to the 1890s. He reported them to his local police station. They refused to collect them but eventually the Ministry of Defence took the charges and shells away for destruction.

The police were pleased with their haul, particularly because of the number and variety of fully automatic small arms that had been handed in. Criminals would have been unlikely to use artillery, but Thompson guns, Sten guns and even German sub-machine guns could have been a real threat.

Og

 

[DormantEvil]

I'm a hunter from Victoria, and I absolutely hate seeing gun buy backs especially those that have very little proof for needing one. Australia's crime by registered firearms and licensed shooters is very low, compared with those crimes committed by unlicensed, non-law abiding, illegally owned firearms.

It is always a shame to see collectors firearms or equipment sent to the smelters, what a way to destroy history. Those should be preserved to show future generations.

A Garand would be well looked after on my wall, if we were allowed to have them on a wall even after they have been disabled or spiked.

I sigh sometimes to see what has become of Australia's firearms laws. I just hope that we are not pushed into following Britain. That would be a heartache. Let alone unneeded.

 

[oggbashan]

I'm a hunter from Victoria, and I absolutely hate seen gun buy backs especially those that have very little proof for needing one. Australia's crime by registered firearms and licensed shooters is very low, compared with those crimes committed by unlicensed, non-law abiding, illegally owned firearms.

It is always a shame to see collectors firearms or equipment sent to the smelters, what a way to destroy history. Those should be preserved to show future generations.

A Garand would be well looked after on my wall, if we were allowed to have them on a wall even after they have been disabled or spiked.

I sigh sometimes to see what has become of Australia's firearms laws. I just hope that we are not pushed into following Britain. That would be a heartache. Let alone unneeded.

It is still legal, even in the UK, to own deactivated weapons. My brother has a deactivated Canadian Ross .303 above his kitchen range. I gave him that as a replacement after he discovered that the ancient and rusty SMLE that he had displayed there was not only functional but loaded with WWI vintage ammunition that had been exposed to the kitchen range's heat for 60 years.

His local village policeman disposed of the SMLE. After all, my brother was a magistrate and couldn't be seen to have been breaking the law...

One of my local friends has a large collection of deactivated small arms from all theatres of WWII. With the older deactivation certification the actions can be operated, dummy shells can be chambered, and the weapon can be field-stripped as normal. More recent deactivation tends to weld the action solid.

The UK's laws haven't done much to reduce our gun crime but the number of people killed by firearms either in accidents or crime is still very low, and much lower than the number who die on our roads.

Og

 

[DormantEvil]

Yes, I would say for people who want to disarm people in Australia to turn their attention to the more dangerous activities that claim lives.

But I've always figured that you can't avoid people dying...and sometimes we go way to far in trying to cheat death.

But I'm too tired to make much sense.

*falls asleep at computer*

 

[Weird Harold]

... the number of people killed by firearms .. and much lower than the number who die on ... roads.

This is true even of the places with the highest gun death rates that aren't in a state of war.

A buy-back program for automobiles isn't practical in most of the world, but may if roads were banned there wouldnt' be ao many deaths on the roads.