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I used to have access to dig through police trade-ins (duty and evidence guns) from a police supply in Austin. I got several good deals, but looking at the calcium stripes on top of the barrel and rusty blood spots turned me off from an almost-free model 65.
It?s a tool. Clean it, use it, dont get worked up about what someone else did using it to achieve their will. If you spend all day worrying about where that $20 bill has been, who slept in your hotel room before you on a trip, you will wind up near suicidal yourself. I find myself getting horrified about what evils exist on the cellular and internet networks I use, but accept I cannot easily control what others do with the same tool, not a perfect one - for - one analogy but similar enough way to think about it.
It's something you would remember every time you looked at it. Kind of creepy to think about even holding a 'known' weapon like that, but as mentioned, some have unknown histories. That being said, lots of variables to consider in the who/what/when category.
I was looking up Earnest Hemmingway's suicide and what he had used, it was his prized English side by side pigeon shotgun. The gun was eventually dismantled, cut-up and buried in a field outside of Ketcham Idaho. Story goes that someone found it and re-built it!?
I heard of someone who collected assassination weapons, not the original but 'like' models. A specialized field of gun collecting.
I would pass, bad Juju.
I couldn't care less.
Actually, if it was somebody I really didn't like, I would be willing to pay extra...
Fascinating the different view points so far.
Since a few inquiring minds want to know, the specific firearm I am alluding to belonged to my grandfather. It isn?t anything exotic or valuable. Its a Ruger and it?s either a speed 6 or a security 6. I can?t recall. I retrieved it from the police in 1994, cleaned it up, and put it away for probably fifteen or twenty years until my dad was finally ready to put it away in his safe. It sat there until my dad passed away in July.
I?ll eventually be selling it and just trying to get a feel about if I should disclose it?s history to potential buyers or not.
I wouldn't mention it.Quote:
Originally Posted by ray1970
As far as our family...my grandfather committed suicide with a WWII surplus military 1911. The family headed to Wyoming where he lived and towards the end of dealing with the funeral and splitting up his items and such I mentioned retrieving the firearm from the police. We had a card for the contact officer so with there being no objections from any of the family I called about it. The officers were kind and had not only the pistol but a suicide letter and a bit of other evidence we were allowed to retrieve. When we showed up they told us the armorer had professionally cleaned and oiled the pistol for us. We also found out that the officers had cleaned up the scene as they did not want the family to have to deal with it. I hear horror stories of families who have had to clean up things like that themselves.
We have that 1911 and keep it ready for home defense. None of my direct family are weirded out by it's history. Frankly...as it is WWII surplus it may have other deaths attributed to it. I saw on auction the other day a classic colt revolver with notches in the grip...most people wouldn't be too freaked out over owning such a gun. It is likely because of the time difference. I have never had anyone question if that Indian arrowhead that someone found had kills on it. Yet it very well could have.
Well if you list it here, the cats out of the bag and we all know.Quote:
Originally Posted by ray1970
For me I don?t think I?d care one way or another. I think I?d only care if it was someone close to me who used it. But if I?m a disinterested 3rd party probably wouldn?t bother me as much.
Now if it?s a house? I might care then
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A firearm with bodies on it is different than than a suicide gun IMO. Unless it is a homicide gun the most likely candidate is a conflict weapon. To me those are a slice of history and always say to them- “If you could only tell your story.”
When I was working at a local shop we started getting crates of Yugoslav SKS’s in. It was clear these were from the Serb conflict. It was fascinating to see the trench art on them, Cyrillic carvings, dates, artistic carvings, patterns where the carrier twirled a knife point and made dot patterns. One was really interesting with colored wire wrapping’s on the gas tube wood.
We had a customer who could read Cyrillic and some of them had a loved ones name, one had a “Lord protect me” type saying.
They all had a history.
One was a bit chilling- wiping off the cosmoline you could see a perfect hand print on the barrel caused by a bloody hand.
Anybody else think it’s weird that I noted a Ruger Security Six in my 1st post?[Peep]Quote:
Originally Posted by ray1970
Story time: in 2003, when I was in Afghanistan, my father's best friend and hunting buddy Dave (whom I had also gone hunting with) killed himself with a .44 magnum revolver. He had been depressed for a while and my dad actually went over to his apartment to see if he was OK, and just as my dad walked up to the front door he heard the shot and called the police. After the place was cleaned up and the estate settled, nobody else in Dave's family wanted anything to do with any of his firearms (and he had a pretty good collection of them), the Fort Collins police asked my dad if he wanted the gun that Dave used to kill himself. Dad declined so I presume the gun either sat in the Fort Collins police evidence room or was somehow disposed of by them.
Dave's other guns were all given to dad (since, again, nobody else in his family wanted them) and one of those guns, a 12g Mossberg 500, sits in my gun safe today.