Question Regarding a WWII Luger & Registration

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Upst8NYer

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Here we go,

I'm 26 years old, and my father served in WWII and brought back a luger (as many soldiers did). I know where the luger is located, in our old house which has since been sold. The pistol has been there since the late 1970's and my question is this...

If I get my pistol permit for NYS how much of a pain in the a$$ is it going to be to register the pistol on my permit (since they require any pistol who's ammunition is currently available to be registered)?

I don't even know off hand if the WWII german lugers had serial numbers... All I know is where it is, and that he packed it in "packing grease" (according to my mother, which I suspect to be cosmoline probably) prior to shipping it back to the US and that it's been holed up in a wall for at least 26 years.

Upst8NYer
 
Oh gawd yes! Luger's have serial numbers out the wazoo on them.:D
Every tiny little itsy bitsy part has it's own version of the serial number.:D :D
 
Ok, now the next question is how much of a pain is it going to be to register? It's never been registered as far as I know, my father was a hunter but had no pistol permit and it's always been holed up and hidden. I don't think it's ever even been fired in the United States.

How would you go about getting it registered on your pistol permit? Same as any other pistol? Go pick it up lock it in a strongbox and hold onto it or drop it off to a dealer to hold on to until you file the paperwork on it?

Upst8NYer
 
I know what I would do if I had such a pistol, but then again I have a bad attitude.

Tim
 
"I know where the luger is located, in our old house which has since been sold. The pistol has been there since the late 1970's and my question is this..."

Do I understand this correctly? The gun is in a house that has been sold. How do you intend on getting the gun? I would figure that the gun would become the property of the new owner.
 
When the property sold, so went the Luger. If it is in a wall, it is part of the house. You should call the police and tell them where that Luger is. If a kid should find it and shoot someone, YOU ARE LIABLE!
 
Yes lugers have numbers. But I know of a case , in NY , where there were two lugers with the same number ! Lugers were made in various countries and at various companies at various times . You should be able to determine that from all the markings. As for registering such a gun , ask a dealer .
 
Best person to ask would be the pistol permit clerk in your respective county. Then you would have accurate information. Given the bizarre laws in the various counties, what may be accurate here might be completely different 40 miles away.

If you don't have your permit yet, you've got a good 8 - 12 months to research this question while your waiting for your permit to come through :(

Leo
 
243-shooter, be very careful about that. You would be admitting to an official that you have an unlicensed pistol, that can get you in trouble. It used to be if you moved to NY form out of state, you had to surrender your pistol to tha sheriff until you got your permit. But a pistol already in the state, unregistered is an illegal gun. Start with a dealer in your county for info.
 
I'm still interested in how you are going to get the pistol out of another persons house. I mean, legally that is their pistol.

I hope you get it though. Heirlooms like that are worth way more to you than anything you can by at the shop. I have my Grandfathers Luger that he brought back, and it's worth more to me than all my other guns...

SC
 
The house was sold to friends of the family, and I've been back to the house to visit with them probably once in the last five years. Their the type of friends that you get x-mas cards from every year and talk to maybe twice a year on the phone.

I have little doubt that if I were to show up with my pistol permit that they would allow me to go get the gun. I'm going to consider calling the family and the county sheriff down there and talking it over with them and turning in the Luger.

I've looked at the law and if I turn it in, the police / sheriff has to hold it for two years before destroying the weapon as a "nuisance weapon".

I'm about 90% sure if during the two years I furnished proof that my father lived there, and the letters home during WWII that my father wrote in which he mentions the pistol along with a valid pistol permit that they would return it to me. If not, I'm taking a pistol out of the hands of the future homeowner that may use it for ill will.

Upst8NYer
 
Hmmm . . . if you really, really, wanted to register it for some reason . . . and it was an inheritance, not a purchase . . . and it was currently in, say, a safety deposit box in another state that didn't have its own registration laws . . .. then it seems to this non-lawyer that at least the local constabulary couldn't steal it, nor could they charge you with violating local registraton laws.

Otherwise, get yourself a permit, and buy another pistol locally. You're now checked out as being OK, and you'll only be adding another pistol, which should be less hassle than getting the permit in the first place. (My guess, I'm not from NY.) Then ship the Luger from out of state to a local FFL dealer in NY who's agreed in advance to do the transfer, and have the gun "papered" that way.

On turning in the Luger . . . I can see it now . . . Officer Donut: "Yep, boy, good thing you turned this in. If y'all just go away, I won't charge you. (chortles after you leave) "Yep, always wanted me one of these."

Good luck getting it out of the walls of another's house.
 
Have any relatives that live in a state without registration outside NY? Get the gun and take it to them. Then you or your mother try to register the gun in NY as part of your fathers estate that you are inheriting. Tell the state it is currently being held by a family member until you complete the paperwork. Federal law allows for transporting firearms across state line as gifts or inheritance, so you wouldn't be breaking any federal laws.

I would not involve the police or a NY FFL while the gun is still in NY. Since the gun is not registered in NY, it would most likely be considered contriband and confiscated. Say bye-bye.
 
"I'm about 90% sure if during the two years I furnished proof that my father lived there, and the letters home during WWII that my father wrote in which he mentions the pistol along with a valid pistol permit that they would return it to me."

"...about 90% sure..."

I'm more sure than that. I'm 100% sure that if you give this gun to the police you not only will never see it again, but at the end of two years it will end up, unregistered, in some cop's private collection. I'll come right out and say it: I would eat worms before I registered this gun. I would bury it in my backyard. I would give it to someone in another state. I would leave it where it is. I would never, ever, voluntarily register a firearm that the government didn't already know about. I would throw it in the ocean first.

Tim
 
If you give the gun to the police you will never see it again. Trust me on this. Or sell it to me. I buy Lugers.

If it were me, I would just ask the family living there. Explain the situation, and if you know them than odds are they will let you come in and get it.

I don't understand why you would want to register the gun.....
 
"Might have something to do with NY throwing you in jail for possession of an unregistered handgun."

But then that's the point, isn't it? Yes, if the OP simply put the gun away and said nothing he would be breaking the law, possibly a law that the state of NY thinks is serious and important. On the other hand he is, I presume, not what most of us would think of as a criminal. The police are never going to search his house under a warrant, which is what it would take for them to find the gun. If he does not shoot the gun, or does so cautiously, there is virtually no way the police can find it.

The writers of our Constitution, and certainly its Second Amendment, would not have a problem with this. But if the OP is worried about the legalities, he can remove the gun from NY to a free state without registering it. Put it in a safe deposit box in a bank. Don't bring it to California; we are not a free state either.

Tim
 
Gotta go with TimRB on this one

If you register it or even start asking enough
questions to remain legal, someone, somewhere
is going to figure out what is goin' on and
you're gonna LOSE IT !!!!!!!!!!
 
I'll stay away from your LEGAL problems here, but let you know that the Germans used a very unusual serial-numbering system; each year, each manufacturer started over again at "0", so to accurately identify a particular firearm, you need to know the manufacturer (denoted by a name or an assigned code), the date it was built (usually marked on the receiver where the barrel is screwed in), and the serial number INCLUDING the suffix letter. When they built these pistols, each manufacturer started at "0", then built "1", then "2", etc., all the way up to "9999"; after "9999", they built pistol "1a", then "2a", etc, etc., all the way up to "9999a", and then started again at "1b". Because of this, you could have a pistol numbered "1234f" built at the same factory in each year of WW2, so to distinguish them from one another, you have to specify all three of those identifiers.
 
You might wnat to get a metal detector.. it would suck to break out a chunk of wall board and find out you were wrong.

Also, be prepared to find a rusted hunk of luger shaped metal... that doesn't sound like effective "long term storage" to me.
 
If anyone but a trusted friend or relative learns about this heirloom, its gone. Research the laws about unregistered pistols. This situation or a similar one must have happened hundreds of times before. When I had the misfortune to live in NYS I remembered reading about many older men who passed away and left their widows unregistered pistols. Noone knew about or was harmed by those firearms. Eventually, some widows would give them to the local police.

Probably SCOPE, NYSRA, or a similar state-level ???. gets this question from time to time and may be able to refer to a helpful source of info. No, I don't trust the local police to deal straight without your own evidence of solid knowledge of the legal processes.

If you are really worried about the niceities, and that it will be confiscated, leave it there.

Are there trusted relatives outside the state? Get it out of the house, out of the state, and have them "sell" it to back to you. Your "great uncle" brought it back, really.
 
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