[Preacherman]

Looks like some of our servicemen have been enterprising little businessmen... From Sky News, England (http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-12289529,00.html):

HEATHROW GOLDEN FUN FIND

A gold-plated gun given to one of Saddam Hussein's henchmen has been seized at Heathrow Airport.

The Kalashnikov AK47 is similar to the one uncovered at Uday Hussein's palace in Baghdad last week.

http://static.sky.com/images/pictures/1139120.jpg

The loaded machine gun was discovered along with a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, six bayonets and a sniper rifle in packages marked as computer equipment, The Daily Mirror said.

The paper said the arms are believed to have been stolen for the US black market in war trophies.

An unnamed source told the paper that the gun was loaded, bubble wrapped along with a spare magazine and was bound for an address in the US but was picked up by an X-ray machine.

The Mirror said the guns arrived on a British Airways flight from Kuwait and was found yesterday at the DHL Terminal Four cargo transfer depot which was evacuated and police alerted.

However Richard Goodfellow, spokesman for BA said their security personnel knew nothing about the find and the carrier had stopped flights from Kuwait last month.

He said: "We don't fly from Kuwait. Flights to there were suspended a month ago around mid-March. We know nothing about this."

A spokesman for DHL was unavailable for comment.

Terry Gander, editor of Jane's Infantry Weapons told the Mirror: "You could name your price for a gold Kalashnikov linked to Saddam. There's a thriving black market in war trophies."

Gold-plated weapons were uncovered in Iraq last week.

They were discovered in palaces belonging to Saddam Hussein and his sons as Allied troops over-ran the country.

[El Tejon]

Preach, if you only knew what came over last time.:scrutiny:

[WilderBill]

I expect that somebody will come up with a more original means of shipment.
Don't hold your breath waiting for that gold AK at the local gun show though.

[Leatherneck]

and was found yesterday at the DHL Terminal Four cargo transfer depot which was evacuated and police alerted. WHEW! Lucky thing everybody escaped safely from that gun. :rolleyes:

TC
TFL Survivor

[Don Gwinn]

Leatherneck, you can't be too careful. There could have been diamond-encrusted Claymore booby-traps in there. :D

[AdamXBT]

Some Other Pics!Enjoy:cool:

[Hoppy590]

WHEW! Lucky thing everybody escaped safely from that gun.

well just to play devils advocate, i wouldnt want to be in an airport luggage area when some one has a RPG in a box. we all know how they throw around your bags. just imagine an RPG going off in there.

[musher]

just imagine an RPG going off in there

That'd be one baggage handler that didn't thrash another bag!

[LAR-15]

I seriously doubt there is a big market for 'war trophies' in the US.

[ArmedBear]

I seriously doubt there is a big market for 'war trophies' in the US.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

[Joe Demko]

No bull market for war trophies, perhaps. There's always been a black market for full-auto, though.

[ArmedBear]

You know, we have live pigeon shoots around here somewhere.

If you want to get to one, you have to know someone, and there are unmarked guideposts on a dirt road to nowhere. When you get to the end, there's a big bird shoot going on, with lots of participants who have more money than they know what to do with. And no one outside the wealthy group of insiders has any idea that the whole thing is even going on anywhere in the state.

Just because you don't see gold AK's on eBay doesn't mean there's no market for war trophies and other rare curiosities. They didn't sell Levi's in the USSR, either.:p

[Blackfork]

Oughtta be legal for folks to bring back war trophies, as many as they care to. The Gov has made a mess of import/export/possession laws. Foolishness.

[Juna]

Oughtta be legal for folks to bring back war trophies, as many as they care to. The Gov has made a mess of import/export/possession laws. Foolishness.

Agreed. They fought for, were wounded for, and some died for those trophies. They more than earned those trophies, IMO. I think the politicians who say they shouldn't be able to bring them back should go fight in their place and spend 6 months in Iraq or Afghanistan. We'll see if they feel any differently afterward.

[Prince Yamato]

just curious... has anyone here gold-plated their semi-auto AK? :D

[Juna]

just curious... has anyone here gold-plated their semi-auto AK?

If anyone answers, "Yes," to this... seriously, donate a gun to a guy in financial need (like me!). :D You're clearly running out of ideas for what to do with your money if you're gold plating guns! Let me give you my Xmas list for starters!

[GTSteve03]

just curious... has anyone here gold-plated their semi-auto AK?
I find the chrome one strangely appealing... :uhoh:

[Erebus]

I find the chrome one strangely appealing...

Nothing purdier than well polished chrome.

[kd7nqb]

I am all for allowing servicemen to bring back trophies, and frankly even if we made them pay the 200 NFA fee it would be reasonable.

[tank mechanic]

I definitely think they should allow us servicemen to bring home weaons. You feel a huge knot in your stomach when they place the c-4 in the pile of confiscated weapons in Iraq and blow them up. Its a d*** shame and I would have been more than happy to give each one of those rifles a loving home

[HiroProX]

Guess the idea never occurred to pinheads in DC.

The fastest way to get guns out of the hands of insurgents, would be to put them up on the open market here at home.

[Number 6]

just curious... has anyone here gold-plated their semi-auto AK?

Now that California legal AKs can be had, a good friend of mine is in the process of building an AK and then having it gold plated. All I can do is just shake my head and laugh at him, but I guess when you have as much money as he does you can do such things.

[jeep-2]

They do everything possible to stop servicemen from bringing back war sovineres or anything that they call contriban.
Maybe some service men should get together and rent a container to ship a whole load thru the piers, i think only about five percent of the containers are checked. even if a weapon was made inoperable, it is still a nice trophy.

The gold plated weapons will probably go to some government museum where they will be legal.

[statelineblues]

AdamXBT posted:
Some Other Pics!Enjoy

How come it's the officers who always get to play with the shiny stuff...?:p

[buzz_knox]

HEATHROW GOLDEN FUN FIND


You think Sky News had a bit of a slip or were they just being honest for once?

[buzz_knox]

How come it's the officers who always get to play with the shiny stuff...?

It keeps them distracted while the sergeants are taking care of business? ;)

[Cousin Mike]

My little brother sent me a picture of him holding one of these, with the specific order to never post it on the internet. ;)

They look amazing - but I think you'd have to be sort of an idiot to try and sneak one back. Ah well, they make great pics to look at! I wonder how much it would cost to have a semi-auto AK refinished with gold. I bet someone around here knows. :scrutiny:

[LAR-15]

So for every one they find, how many do they not find?

I've read that full auto AKs from Iraq are showing up among British street gangs.

[ArmedBear]

Agreed. They fought for, were wounded for, and some died for those trophies. They more than earned those trophies, IMO.

The heads. You're looking at the heads.

http://images.encarta.msn.com/xrefmedia/sharemed/targets/images/pho/t638/T638533A.jpg

[wingnutx]

They wouldn't let me keep this one:

http://www.punk-rock.com/iraq/goldak-x.jpg

large image: http://www.punk-rock.com/iraq/goldak.jpg

[wingnutx]

I seriously doubt there is a big market for 'war trophies' in the US.

I didn't bring trophies back to sell, I brought them back to look cool on my mantle.

I put all my crazy stuff right out in front when the AF customs guys inspected up, and the only thing the inspector wanted to take a close look at was my Spyderco, 'cause he thought it was neat :D