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Posted on 11/16/2022 4:05:06 AM PST by marktwain
The most dangerous use of a serial number on a firearm is as a registration number. In effect, gun registration is gun confiscation. It was not the intent for which serial numbers were made. They were created to track firearms with production changes and as a way for government arsenals to track the production and military use of weapons.
A federal court recently held a law passed in 1990, which makes possessing a firearm with a removed serial (registration) number illegal, is unconstitutional.
This is an important decision. It has relatively minor effects at this time. The law was a step toward universal firearms registration.
Suppose a person cannot be punished for merely possessing a firearm from which a serial number has been removed. In that case, the entire scheme for government control over legally owned firearms falls apart.
There cannot be effective gun registration if a person cannot be punished for possessing a gun with the serial number removed.
The legal ability to possess firearms without serial numbers buttresses the deterrent effect of an armed population.
If government agents demand a person turn in a firearm that is registered to them, they can remain silent.
If the firearm appears at some later date, and the serial number has been removed, it becomes difficult to connect the firearm to the person it was registered to.
It becomes difficult to punish a person for an act someone else commits with a firearm originally purchased by them.
A unique serial number is a key to efforts to register and control firearms by the administrative state. Nelson T. “Pete” Shields of Handgun Control, inc. laid out the plan in 1976:
(Excerpt) Read more at ammoland.com ...
This is why an old fashioned revolver acquired way back when is so useful. It won’t scatter brass across the landscape, and if you have to drop it in a storm drain or trash can after use, it won’t come back to you.
And, if the gun owner has ever filled out of 4473, he's on Big Brother's radar. And Big Brother is not amused.
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I like those.
I also like Colt positive lock revolvers like the Python and Diamondback.
True. Stamping distorts the grain structure of the underlying metal. If the spot is polished and then treated with acid, the number can often be read using a microscope.
I’ve occasionally seen a “ghost” serial number after machining away .010” to .015” of material when reworking an incorrectly marked piece. The characters showed as slightly raised figures. This effect resulted from localized work-hardening from the die’s impact.
Yes I’ve seen the same thing. There’s a lot of fake serial number shenanigans in the car restoration biz.
I'm not really a collector. I'm more of an accumulator.
My firearms are tools. They are not jewelry. If I ever get my Second Amendment rights back, I will sell every registered firearm I own and buy unregistered replacements. The financial loss would be meaningless to me.
Politicians are CRIMINALS
You will also lose the value of the gun. As in the year it was made and collectable value. I guess if it just a generic gun grind it. lol
Amazing how much the Pythons have become!
*** Nelson T. “Pete” Shields of Handgun Control, inc. laid out the plan in 1976:***
Here is the complete statement from Nelson Shields on how they planned to get the handguns, one step at a time! They have since added rifles to their list of “to be banned” items.
Nelson T. ‘Pete’ Shields
Founder of Handgun Control, Inc.(Now the Brady Center)
“I’m convinced that we have to have federal legislation to build on. We’re going to have to take one step at a time, and the first step is necessarily — given the political realities — going to be very modest.
Of course, it’s true that politicians will then go home and say, ‘This is a great law. The problem is solved.’ And it’s also true that such statements will tend to defuse the gun-control issue for a time.
So then we’ll have to strengthen that law, and then again to strengthen that law, and maybe again and again. Right now, though, we’d be satisfied not with half a loaf but with a slice. Our ultimate goal — total control of handguns in the United States — is going to take time.
My estimate is from seven to ten years. The problem is to slow down the increasing number of handguns sold in this country. The second problem is to get them all registered. And the final problem is to make the possession of all handguns and all handgun ammunition — except for the military, policemen, licensed security guards, licensed sporting clubs, and licensed gun collectors — TOTALLY ILLEGAL.”
-Pete Shields, Chairman and founder, Handgun Control Inc., “A Reporter At Large: Handguns,” The New Yorker, July 26, 1976, 57-58
“Yes, I’m for an outright ban [on handguns].”
-Pete Shields, Chairman emeritus, Handgun Control, Inc., 60 Minutes interview
HCI, around 1984, made a grab for the semi-auto rifles and shotguns, and missed. Then Josh Sugarmann tuned in. This has been the mantra ever since.
“ Assault weapons’ menacing looks, coupled with the public’s confusion over fully-automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weapons —anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine gun— can only increase the chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons.”
– Josh Sugarmann
There are ways to bring out a ground off number using chemicals to bring out the stress in the metal.
A way to get rid of the number is to take a very small center punch and cover the number with lots of small punch marks, creating more stress in the firearm, then grind it off.
Now I'm wishing I'd chosen the Python.
It would be a good thing to inventory your firearms to see which ones you acquired without paperwork.
I wish I had all the ones I bought before the 1968 gun control act was made law.
“Today we begin to disarm the criminal and the careless and the insane. All of our people who are deeply concerned in this country about law and order should hail this day.”-— Lyndon Johnson signing the 1968 gun control act into law.
To be really devious a person could fracture said serial number with a punch to distort the metal, mill out a portion of what is still structurally safe and replace it with a stamped random number which is not associated with the manufacturer. I’m not sure how obvious this would be. it would take precise milling. of course, I would never advise anyone to do this or any illegal act. This post is for information purposes only.
Yes, all of the people today sing the praises of LBJ for ridding us of crime. No more armed criminals because of this courageous leader.
/sarc
When I first got into buying guns, you could get a nice Python or series 70 Gov't model for about $400.
Agree.....The process of stamping a serial number makes the metal harder under each alphanumeric ........ removing a serial number is just visually removing it. X-ray reveals the serial numbers easily .
Might want to build a smython or a Smolt ...... :o)
I got a new 8 inch python barrel and after machining it to fit a SW Mod 19 threads it was sweet 6” barrel ..... you can get bushings to put a Python barrel on a Smith & Wesson but they flame cut over time. Machined threads last forever .....
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/421579215098801842/
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