Posted on 01/16/2014 8:59:51 PM PST by marktwain
When Schuyler Taylor attended a gun buyback program in Seattle last year, he wasn't hoping to turn in an unwanted firearm for a $50 gift card. He was looking to pay cold cash for a rare weapon.
Taylor, a 24-year-old gun enthusiast, is one of a growing number of collectors who has been showing up at the events, where towns, police departments, churches and nonprofits offer money or gift cards for old guns. The events have been held all over the country, credited by some for getting weapons off the streets and ridiculed by others for paying money for rusting junk. But collectors have taken notice that some of the guns, which are typically destroyed, are worth far more than they fetch at buyback events.
“My goal was to go down there and see if I could find something that I felt should be preserved instead of it going into a melting pot,” Taylor told FoxNews.com. “Many of the people who come to the buybacks to trade in are often naïve. They don’t realize that they have an heirloom.”
Gun blogger Dean Weingarten, who hosts a website called Gunwatch, said a collector who attended a recent buyback event in College Park, Ga., bought several valuable guns that would have otherwise been destroyed, including what is believed to be an antique flintlock pistol. Weingarten says competition from collectors should be encouraged.
"It stretches the turn-in budget so that more guns can be taken off the street," he wrote. "It helps keep fearful widows from being defrauded of most of the market value of the gun they are turning in. It prevents valuable assets from being destroyed by bureaucratic inflexibility. It is a win-win-win situation."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Bump
Watch them make this illegal.
It shouldn’t be illegal, nor should the gun buy-backs be banned, even thought I think they’re a terrible waste of many guns that could be put to better use, and none of the governments business. But it is a shame that some of the “hawks” take advantage of people’s ignorance and don’t pay fair prices. I’d rather see those guns go up for auction so at least some “widder-robber” doesn’t profit by them.
The gooberment will not be happy that someone is getting in between them and the fearful widows they are trying to defraud.
I'm sure that any time Mr Knox sells a gun he prices it at a loss. /sarc
What a tool.
You just know that the cops are going through and high-grading this stuff before it goes to scrap. I very much doubt many collector guns ever make it to the melting pot. Nice opportunity to get valuable arms for nothing.
“But it is a shame that some of the “hawks” take advantage of people’s ignorance and don’t pay fair prices. I’d rather see those guns go up for auction so at least some “widder-robber” doesn’t profit by them.”
So, you would rather see the guns go for a lower price, and be destroyed, than to have a collector pay a higher price, and the gun put to good use?
A fair price is one that a buyer and seller agree to.
“...bought several valuable guns that would have otherwise been destroyed, including what is believed to be an antique flintlock pistol.”
Do flintlock pistol purchases require an FFL transfer and background check? Or does their manufacture precede that law? Just wondering.
Apparently, pre-1899 firearms are exempt from the paperwork, via the Gun Control Act of 1968 (which modified Title 18, U.S. Code) that exempted pre-1899 guns from the Federal Firearms License paperwork requirements administered by the BATFE.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antique_gun#United_States
If you look at the top of the box of buyback guns at the article link, you will see what looks like an Anschutz Exemplar. That is a $400-600 single shot bolt action target pistol and one of the most accurate handguns in the world. Mine will shoot well under half inch groups at 50 yards. I sure hope someone rescued that fine firearm before they destroyed it.
Thanks for the ID. I wondered about that one, but could not place it.
In May,in Phoenix, I saw a WWII Luger with original holster go into the “destroy” bin.
Simply insane.
“Simply insane.”
Insane is right. There also appears to be an early model S&W with the old style cylinder latch and diamond grips. The grips alone are worth over $100.
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