Jim Watson
Member
I fear you are S.O.L. By your own account, you have no proof of purchase or ownership of that gun. And if you did, it would name your brother, not you, so he would have to do the leg work.
Even if you rat the thief out to his boss and he is fired or even prosecuted for wearing a gun into a Federal building, you cannot prove the gun is yours. It will spend eternity in an evidence locker, be melted down for manhole covers, be traded to a dealer for new police gear, or go home with a cop who thinks it interesting, depending on local policy. They will not hand it over to you on your claim that it was yours in 'Nam.
It is not that S&W won't help, it is that they can't help. They do not allocate guns in serial number blocks. They might send No 123456 and No 123457 to opposite sides of the country if that was the way the orders came in. Dealers get guns from distributors based on availability and price. There is not a Northwestern Minnesota S&W distributor who handles all the guns sold in that area.
Prior to GCA 1968, there is no Federal paper on that gun. Any local registration from when your brother got it is probably in a box in the basement of the courthouse, if not just discarded when they remodeled. There was not the computerization of everything 40 years ago.
I do not presume to tell you how to spend your time and energy, but pursuing that gun does not look like a good way.
Even if you rat the thief out to his boss and he is fired or even prosecuted for wearing a gun into a Federal building, you cannot prove the gun is yours. It will spend eternity in an evidence locker, be melted down for manhole covers, be traded to a dealer for new police gear, or go home with a cop who thinks it interesting, depending on local policy. They will not hand it over to you on your claim that it was yours in 'Nam.
It is not that S&W won't help, it is that they can't help. They do not allocate guns in serial number blocks. They might send No 123456 and No 123457 to opposite sides of the country if that was the way the orders came in. Dealers get guns from distributors based on availability and price. There is not a Northwestern Minnesota S&W distributor who handles all the guns sold in that area.
Prior to GCA 1968, there is no Federal paper on that gun. Any local registration from when your brother got it is probably in a box in the basement of the courthouse, if not just discarded when they remodeled. There was not the computerization of everything 40 years ago.
I do not presume to tell you how to spend your time and energy, but pursuing that gun does not look like a good way.