These recent images via the Botswana Police Service, show stands of impounded and surrendered rifles and shotguns given the hard goodbye.
Sure lots of these look to be Chinese pellet rifles, cottage industry-made smokepoles, and cobbled together “Dane Guns” but on closer look, you can see plenty of old Martini-Henrys, Enfields, and boxlocks. There are likely a few Rigbys, big game Mausers, and Holland & Hollands there as well.
A pity.
Anti-gun officials in New York are taking a victory lap this week after a huge state-run “buy back” event but, as usual, the quality of guns turned in is suspect.
While we won’t postulate on the effectiveness of such programs, which usually involve offering a mix of taxpayer funds and donated gift cards for unwanted firearms of typically low value, Empire State Attorney General Letitia James made sure her office released a PR sheet of short aggrandizing quotes from gun control flacks and professional career Democrats testifying to how much good last Saturday’s “buy back” event did for the community.
The event was held simultaneously at nine locations ranging from New York City and Long Island to Syracuse and Niagara Falls, with most photos long on smiles from local officials and short on gun details. After all, the guns were accepted “no questions asked.” The latter is a great way for some folks to dispose of guns used in crime while keeping unsolved crimes in the cold case files and defendants out of jail.
In terms of quantity, the progressive security circus sideshow, which James’ office called “the first-ever statewide gun buyback in New York history,” collected 3,000 assorted guns across the locations.
These included 185 “assault weapons” as classified under New York law, as well as 1,656 handguns and 823 long guns. If the basic math leaves the average reader coming up about 336 “guns” short, keep in mind that photos from the event show tables with a liberal sprinkling of BB guns, black powder muzzleloaders, and paintball guns, which could account for the discrepancy.
The fee schedule, which left some room for profit for some with near worthless junk guns in the closet:
To keep those clever guys with lots of filament on hand from cashing in, the event was limited in the respect that anyone bringing homemade or 3D-printed guns would be paid a total of $25, regardless of how many they brought.
Now, let’s talk about an interesting jewel seen in the guns recovered from Niagara Falls “buy back” on Saturday. Some 505 guns were reportedly collected in that Western New York town. Of those, a closeup photo of a small table holding just nine high-profile black rifles was shown off in a press release.
Some downright “scary” hardware there, bought off “the mean streets” of Niagara Falls for $500 a pop by AG James’ office. In some cases, the AG clearly got ripped off. (Photo: AG.NY.Gov)
Besides a few actual ARs in the above image– including one in what looks like a 3D printed lower with a Key-Mod rail of all things – the table holds what could be a Galil SBR, a Wilkerson style carbine, an early first-gen Hi-Point “Planet of the Apes” carbine in an ATI Beretta CX4-style stock, and, to the far right, a Tommy-gun-esque Hy Hunter T-62 Civilian Defense Weapon.
A what?
Yup, one of the great unsung eye-catching novelty rifles of the 1960s, the T-62 was built by California-based Hy Hunter from a stockpile of Armalite AR-7 .22 LR rifles and parts they bought cheap and recast into something, well, different.
The 3.3-pound T-62, grandiosely labeled a “Civilian Defense Weapon” and equipped with a plywood stock, was marketed through an ad that predated “Red Dawn” and portrayed it in use against enemy paratroopers.
The ad copy said the little 16-shot .22 was “the perfect weapon for civilian defense, house-to-house fighting, jungle warfare,” in addition to fending off uninvited menacing sky soldiers.
Hy Hunter sold them alongside similarly converted AR-7 “Bolomauser” and “M1 Carbine” versions for $49-$59, with extras like a 4x fixed power scope and a muzzle brake available for a few dollars more. Keep in mind this was just after the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The T-62’s claim to fame was that it appeared in at least two films, including the 1967 Dean Martin spy comedy “The Ambushers” and the 1968 John Wayne proto-comedy “The Green Berets,” the latter cased in the hands of rather heavyset Anglo extras portraying dutifully dying VC infiltrators.
The T-62 clocked in for at least two films in the 1960s. As the Hollywood productions were done back to back, they may be the same set of rifles. You can almost hear the Wilhelm scream in the photos to the right. (Photos: IMFDB)
Not many T-62s survive, making the Niagara Falls gun something of a rarity. Sadly, it will probably be destroyed after likely being passed off to many as a “Tommy Gun.”
Pour out some Ballistol for the torched and remember the glory of what was. It belonged in a museum, next to a fallout shelter sign and between photos of JFK and Khrushchev.
The French Interior Ministry, on the basis that the country had as many as six million unregistered firearms in public hands, recently sought to get them surrendered.
This gun “surplus” in the government’s eyes came due to several factors. A crossroads of large-scale military campaigns going back centuries– the first recorded European battle where cannons were used was at Crecy in Northern France in 1346– the country has seen most of the modern armies of the continent fight their way across its soil at one time or another, leaving lots of gear behind. Added to this was an extensive underground Resistance army that swelled to 400,000 freedom fighters equipped by Allied weapon drops during World War II, which saw many guns quietly squirreled away afterward, just in case. Finally, the country saw a vibrant and active shooting sports community that, in more recent years, has declined.
Now, to get those “off-record” inherited or heirloom guns either recorded on the government’s books or destroyed, the French government held a nationwide “amnesty” for “armes héritées et trouvées” or “legacy and found weapons.” The event, held from Nov. 25 through Dec. 2 at more than 300 locations, allowed individuals to bring in undeclared guns and either relinquish them or register them with the government, joining the growing list of 5 million firearms already documented.
In other words, the event wasn’t aimed at getting guns out of the hands of criminals, but out of the average resident’s closet and garage.
In all, only some 150,000 firearms and 4 million rounds of ammunition were abandoned while another 50,000 guns were registered, falling far short of the government’s estimate of six million, meaning that non-compliance among many off-book gun owners remains high.
Still, some of the guns turned in were amazing.
The Colt Canada-produced C20 semi-automatic Intermediate Sniper Weapon is being acquired for the Canadian Army in small numbers.
Produced domestically by Colt Canada in Kitchener, Ontario, the semi-automatic C20 has an 18-inch barrel with a 1-in-10 twist and is reportedly pretty friggen accurate. Testing showed the rifle to fire 8,000 rounds with no stopping and deliver an average of .66 MOA over 144 five-round groups using 175-grain Federal Gold Medal Match.
The overall length on the C20 is 38-inches while weight is 9.1-pounds. It has a 46-slot continuous MIL-STD-1913 top rail and a handguard with M-LOK accessory slots in the 3-, 6-, and 9-o’clock positions. (Photo: Colt Canada)
More in my column at Guns.com.
The term “gun buyback” is kind of a misnomer as it implies that the people purchasing said unwanted firearms “off the streets” owned them in the first place. Nonetheless, they sometimes turn up interesting items for which those involved pay a song. In recent years this has included a revolver stolen from Teddy Roosevelt and a vintage museum-quality StG44, both of which were saved from the torch.
Sadly, a beautiful M1911 owned by Sammy Davis Jr. was not.
Well, speaking of odd catches at buybacks, the Marin County District Attorney’s Office hosted one earlier this month which was covered by the local paper and I picked up at Guns.com. Why would I pick up such a normally pedestrian news story?
Because they garnered a cherry HK MP5 with a side-folding factory marked stock and four-positon ambi Navy fire control pack lower, as well as a host of mags and a couple of suppressors for $200. At the very least it is a SP89 conversion Sterling VA marked H&K with nice laser on the front.
As California frowns on suppressor ownership altogether for civilians and you have to get special permission from DOJ besides your regular NFA hoops for full-autos, the MP5 combo likely came in from out of state, was illegal (say it ain’t possible), a prop house gun, or is a Post-86 dealer sample or LE gun. In any of these cases, there are likely some questions.
Mayor Eric Garcetti and Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck spoke at City Hall last Wednesday next to a table of guns including what appeared to be a Thompson semi-auto carbine, a few AK-pattern rifles, and some AR-15 lower receivers. The guns were part of a 791-weapon haul from the City’s annual Gun Buyback event held last Saturday that saw $200 gift cards from Ralph’s traded for the guns.
Sure, they are unwanted guns that could have eventually found their way into the hands of criminal elements who are prohibited from buying guns from lawful dealers over the counter, but there most likely weren’t any honest crooks themselves in line last weekend to turn their gatts in.
Most of the guns weren’t worth much, as evidenced from the fact that Papa Garcetti could only cough up a few pitiful examples to show off, but there was one really nice piece that probably could have been saved.
It was a milsurp M1911A1 that, at least until his death, was registered to Sammy Davis Jr.
The entertainer died May 16, 1990 at age 64 in Beverly Hills after a battle with throat cancer. Besides being a talented performer and founding member of the Rat Pack, SDJ was an accomplished trick shooter.
Occasionally wearing his custom 1873 Colt SAAs on stage with his highly-tooled one-of-a-kind Western rig, SDJ would captivate fans with an exhibition of his quick-draw abilities.
He also reportedly loved to target shoot and was a guest star on a number of popular Western TV shows of the 50s and 60s such as “The Rifleman,” “Zane Grey Theatre,” and “Wild, Wild West” where he got to use hardware on screen.
As for his M1911, I spoke with the public affairs people with the LAPD and the Mayor’s office, championing the possibility (which would cost the city nothing) of exhibiting SDJ’s .45 at the LAPD Museum. They could even have scrapped the barrel or internals in an effort to render it harmless and included an anti-gun treatise on how it was bought “off the streets” in an effort to save lives.
Nope, they advised. As the gun was not stolen or used in a pending crime as far as they knew of, it would be scrapped.
And they were:
Gun by back programs, started during World War 2 in which the military purchased thousands of qualifying shotguns, rifles, and sidearms for use by Civil Defense units and for training purposes. One of the largest buybacks in history was the 1996 Australian Buyback in which over 600,000 firearms were purchased by the government from its citizens. The huge number was a result of most types of firearms being banned in that county the same year, and thus made illegal. Since the assault weapons ban in the United States, many organizations and cities have had their own buy backs with the publicly stated purpose of reducing the number of unwanted firearms on the streets and thus cutting back on crime. These programs have gained momentum in the past decade with agencies offering as much as $200 in gift cards (often donated by local businesses) for each firearm turned in– no questions asked, with the harvested firearms being destroyed.
However overblown headlines, overpaying for junk firearms, and over-hyping the number of firearms bought in relation to those still available are all oft-under addressed.
See the rest at my column at Firearms Talk.com http://www.firearmstalk.com/entries/Gun-Buyback-Program-Myths.html
