Harry Tuttle
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Get rid of a gun? He's over a barrel
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/...source=rss&channel=inquirer_montgomery_county
By John Grogan
Inquirer Columnist
Keith Shaw is just a suburban dad who wanted to do the right thing.
He had a gun he wanted to dispose of responsibly so it wouldn't end up on the street, where it might be used to rob a bank or kill a child.
Shaw, a father of four boys who lives in Lower Salford Township in Montgomery County, thought it would be simple enough.
For years the gun - a bolt-action .22-caliber rifle - had sat in his father's home. It had not been fired for a quarter-century but still worked.
When Shaw's 84-year-old father, Wayne Shaw, moved to a senior-citizen complex this summer, the gun had to go. But what to do with it?
The son offered to take care of it for his father. He locked the rifle in the trunk of his car and drove to a gun dealer in Bucks County. The dealer looked it over and said it had no value.
"I said just take it," Shaw recalled. "I don't want any money. I just want to get rid of it; I don't want it in my house."
The gun dealer refused. So Shaw drove to the state police barracks at Skippack. The officer at the front desk had no clue how Shaw could properly dispose of the gun. "We don't take them," he told Shaw.
Shaw, who owns a pistol that he keeps locked in a safe at home, persisted. He could not believe the police wouldn't be thrilled to get one more firearm out of commission.
Sell it to a stranger
He asked a second trooper at the barracks. "She said, 'The only way we would take it is if we confiscated it in a traffic stop or something.' "
Shaw said the trooper suggested that he sell it through a classified ad. But Shaw did not want to sell it to a stranger. Or at a flea market. Or anywhere else it might end up in the wrong hands.
Next, he talked to a corporal at the barracks. "I said, 'Tell me what I should do with it.' "
Shaw said the corporal suggested he give it to a friend or neighbor.
(Yesterday, Trooper Dean Wright at Skippack told me the barracks does not accept guns because they do not have enough secure storage. He said most gunsmiths, for a fee, will accept and destroy guns.)
Shaw gave up on the state police and called his local township police. They told him that they were not set up to accept guns for disposal but that the Montgomery County Sheriff's Department could help him. So he called the sheriff's department. Another dead end.
By this point, Shaw's quixotic journey was becoming more a point of principle than practicality. He knew he could always disable the gun with a few good blows from a sledgehammer and drop it in the trash. He knew he could drive 50 miles round trip and turn it in to Philadelphia police, who readily - and wisely - accept guns for disposal, no questions asked.
But it just didn't seem right.
There was something else driving Shaw's persistence. His son, Joshua, 21, is studying criminal justice at Delaware Valley College near Doylestown and wants to be a police officer. The father is haunted by an improbable but horrifying what-if.
What if I let this gun return to the streets? What if someday this very same weapon is used against my son?
More dead-ends
Shaw, a car dealer, read in the newspaper about State Rep. Dwight Evans' lobbying for stronger gun-control laws. He sent the Philadelphia Democrat an e-mail describing his dilemma but got no response.
He then tried his local representative, John W. Fichter (R., Montgomery), whose office acknowledged his e-mail but so far has offered no solutions.
"Why does it have to be so hard when there are such issues with illegal guns?" Shaw asked.
It's all just so ironic. In a state where gun deaths fill the headlines, where gun controls are among the most lax in the nation, where lawmakers spent this week wringing their hands over what to do, a citizen can't even easily turn in an unwanted gun.
A good start would be for lawmakers to require every law-enforcement office in the state to accept all firearms for disposal. Even the National Rifle Association shouldn't have a problem with that.
And as for Shaw's unwanted rifle?
"It's still riding around in my trunk," he said.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/...source=rss&channel=inquirer_montgomery_county
By John Grogan
Inquirer Columnist
Keith Shaw is just a suburban dad who wanted to do the right thing.
He had a gun he wanted to dispose of responsibly so it wouldn't end up on the street, where it might be used to rob a bank or kill a child.
Shaw, a father of four boys who lives in Lower Salford Township in Montgomery County, thought it would be simple enough.
For years the gun - a bolt-action .22-caliber rifle - had sat in his father's home. It had not been fired for a quarter-century but still worked.
When Shaw's 84-year-old father, Wayne Shaw, moved to a senior-citizen complex this summer, the gun had to go. But what to do with it?
The son offered to take care of it for his father. He locked the rifle in the trunk of his car and drove to a gun dealer in Bucks County. The dealer looked it over and said it had no value.
"I said just take it," Shaw recalled. "I don't want any money. I just want to get rid of it; I don't want it in my house."
The gun dealer refused. So Shaw drove to the state police barracks at Skippack. The officer at the front desk had no clue how Shaw could properly dispose of the gun. "We don't take them," he told Shaw.
Shaw, who owns a pistol that he keeps locked in a safe at home, persisted. He could not believe the police wouldn't be thrilled to get one more firearm out of commission.
Sell it to a stranger
He asked a second trooper at the barracks. "She said, 'The only way we would take it is if we confiscated it in a traffic stop or something.' "
Shaw said the trooper suggested that he sell it through a classified ad. But Shaw did not want to sell it to a stranger. Or at a flea market. Or anywhere else it might end up in the wrong hands.
Next, he talked to a corporal at the barracks. "I said, 'Tell me what I should do with it.' "
Shaw said the corporal suggested he give it to a friend or neighbor.
(Yesterday, Trooper Dean Wright at Skippack told me the barracks does not accept guns because they do not have enough secure storage. He said most gunsmiths, for a fee, will accept and destroy guns.)
Shaw gave up on the state police and called his local township police. They told him that they were not set up to accept guns for disposal but that the Montgomery County Sheriff's Department could help him. So he called the sheriff's department. Another dead end.
By this point, Shaw's quixotic journey was becoming more a point of principle than practicality. He knew he could always disable the gun with a few good blows from a sledgehammer and drop it in the trash. He knew he could drive 50 miles round trip and turn it in to Philadelphia police, who readily - and wisely - accept guns for disposal, no questions asked.
But it just didn't seem right.
There was something else driving Shaw's persistence. His son, Joshua, 21, is studying criminal justice at Delaware Valley College near Doylestown and wants to be a police officer. The father is haunted by an improbable but horrifying what-if.
What if I let this gun return to the streets? What if someday this very same weapon is used against my son?
More dead-ends
Shaw, a car dealer, read in the newspaper about State Rep. Dwight Evans' lobbying for stronger gun-control laws. He sent the Philadelphia Democrat an e-mail describing his dilemma but got no response.
He then tried his local representative, John W. Fichter (R., Montgomery), whose office acknowledged his e-mail but so far has offered no solutions.
"Why does it have to be so hard when there are such issues with illegal guns?" Shaw asked.
It's all just so ironic. In a state where gun deaths fill the headlines, where gun controls are among the most lax in the nation, where lawmakers spent this week wringing their hands over what to do, a citizen can't even easily turn in an unwanted gun.
A good start would be for lawmakers to require every law-enforcement office in the state to accept all firearms for disposal. Even the National Rifle Association shouldn't have a problem with that.
And as for Shaw's unwanted rifle?
"It's still riding around in my trunk," he said.
What If 
