My wife, kids and grandkids can figure things out when I check out Ron
With directives, guidance and buyers already lined up, I hope.
On the other hand I was at a LGS/militaria store locally, he was telling me about looking at the window and seeing an older lady diagonally parking her car in front of the door trunk first. She came in and he recognized her from meeting her at a gun show where her husband attended, he was an old acquaintance and had passed. He left everything up to his wife, kids and grandkids to dispose.
All his guns were thrown in the trunk and she had stopped by on the way to a pawn shop to sell them off for whatever she could to get rid of them. He offered what he could after unloading them for 45 minutes, no cases, piled one on top of the other, and made a first offer she immediately accepted. It wasn't the first time he'd been called on to dispose of stuff, he had run estate auctions frequently and a lot of it came in the door because "no will or provisions."
The owner recently passed, he was well known and his entire store stock was purchased by one individual. Fixtures are now gone and the building for sale, things are moving expeditiously. He had arrangements in advance and his wife is not being taken for a dime on the dollar.
I'm selling off my uneeded guns as I can only carry one or two at a time, and if they are the best for the job, why do I need more? That's all the service gave me for combat, one rifle, one pistol, make it work. While we might have a need for a specific cartridge, for the most part they are all barrels for bullets, which do the work. And if there are more than you can carry, then it goes to reasons beyond defense. I don't need a security blanket of guns around me in my old age, and I'm not going to stuff them in the mattress, either.
We read plenty of posts of someone picking up a steal from a relative who passed - like a Craftsman tool chest, you don't see them at auction very often. And the one with the SAE in it can go, too. I have nothing I drive that old, and sadly, the tools are less wanted now than the cabinet.
The OP has a good sense of what he should do while still able to do it. We don't get to put the day of our passing on the calendar and then wake up that morning to check our to do list and see, Oh, I have a heart attack at 2:35 PM climbing the stairs. Time to schedule the ambulance.
If you can't prevent your passing, at least prevent being a huge pain in the butt to your survivors and clean up your mess before you leave. Don't believe it - ask a group of widows when you meet one at church or shopping. Our passing shouldn't be a 6 month trial of frustration and anger.
