Hypothetical: Finding a gun?

[ENC]

I would make an anonymous call to a police department and ask them to run the serial # if it came back clean I would keep it.

If it came back stolen I would ask for the owners name and address. I would try to return it myself. I am not going to get in any habit of giving weapons in my possesion to LEO'. If I couldn't return the gun it would disapear. One of the perks to having access to a machine shop?

 

[Mixlesplick]

Remember the guy who found marijuana on his property? After reading that I would probably consult an attorney before making any attempt to turn the gun into the police. If I decided to keep it I would find a very good hiding place for it and keep it in reserve for a SHTF situation.

 

[Muzzleflash]

What I'd probably do, because there is a somewhat high likelyhood of it being a crime weapon, is take it, clean it, make sure it's operational, etc... And then take it to the woods or somewhere remote, and waterproof/bury it. Throughout all this, I'd be sure to keep my fingerprints off of the gun. Hey- I wouldn't want to just give up a gun, but I don't want to have it in my posession and have it turn out to be some criminal's disposed weapon.

That's why you turn it into the cops, duh. Unless you like the idea of a critical part of evidence being hidden and a criminal potentially getting away.

 

[jdkelly]

If I found a gun....

My thoughts on this subject and the actions I'd take are listed below.

If I found a gun I'd report it to local PD so that:

1) An attempt can be made to return it to it's rightful owner. If it's been stolen (or lost) and I keep it without attempting to return it, I'm a theif.

2) The firearm can be checked for use in a crime. If the firearm has been used in a crime and I withhold or destroy this evidence then I'm a criminal.

If after the above actions there is no owner or evidence of a crime found then I would (if I wanted to) attempt to reclaim the firearm with papers from the PD stating stating these facts (to protect myself).

For me, to do less would be wrong.

Respectfully,

jdkelly

 

[ScottsGT]

My brother found one in a night stand at a hotel he check in to one time. He said it was kind of rusty and "didn't trust it's looks" Anotherwords, a responsible person with an absent mind would have taken better care of it. He called the local PD to come pick it up. And he too is a "gun nut" and was afraid of what it might have been used for.

 

[Kharn]

One of my buddies IM'ed me a link to a Thompson that was for sale on SturmGeurwhatever (I cant spell...) a short while back.
It was fished out of a lake/river by a bunch of Boy scouts in the ~50s and amnesty registered in 1968.

The finish was a little pitted and rough (I think it had been reblued without polishing), but the price was pretty low to make up for it. But talk about a story to go with a gun.

Kharn

 

[jobu07]

Years ago my dad put his 30 years in working for UPS. One day, he was delivering a package out in the boonies and low and behold, in the ditch on his way to a house he saw a rifle laying there. He told me he got out, looked at it, foudn it was unloaded, then left it there. He then came back again the next day, delivering another package to the same house. This time he checked and the rifle was still there so he slipped it into the back of his truck. Thing was packed with mud and gunk and dirt and kinda nasty. Turns out it was an nice colt 22 mag single shot rifle. No serial number stamped in it either. He still has it to this day, nearly 20 years later.

 

[Bubbles]

I have heard of the most weapons that are found being war trophies, so I would go through some hoops first, but probably keep the weapon.

Unfortunately a lot of war trophy "bring backs" are class-III firearms. If they were never registered with ATF then they're contraband, as a lot of war widows or their heirs are now discovering when they clean out grandma's attic...

As for what to do with a found gun... it depends on where it was found. If it's in a ditch, I'd call the local LEO's and let them deal with it, simply because I'd lay better than even money that some local gang-banger wanted to get rid of it. If it were in my house or buried on my land... that's different.

 

[Carlos Cabeza]

In another thread I told of finding a glock magazine with live rounds in it. I looked for the weapon for quite some time only because there was a case here in OKC concerning "Murder w/ no weapon". OKCPD had the perp in custody. He killed a man who was washing his car at the carwash. CCTV captured the identity of the assailant who was later captured. Perp told a cellmate he had tossed the gun, celly turned SE and reported the conversation. A massive hunt for the weapon went on and a community lake was even drained but to no avail. The weapon was never found. Due to the savage nature of the attack on the vic, I wanted to see the murderer get what he had coming. Too bad the vic didn't have his CCW, coulda saved alot of trouble for everybody.