How do you think about owning guns likely used for evil in the past?

I got a Yugoslavia m48 a while back. Had been wanting a k98 but the deal on this was too good to pass up.

Took it out of the box and wiped the cosmoline off the outside so I could handle it. Put it in the gun safe where it sat for 4 years; normally I shoot everything on a rotational basis. Just something about it....

Traded it for something else and never looked back.
 
I own a Japanese Arisaka type 99 that may or may not have a head count. I don’t really think about that or if it’s owner was KIA by one of ours. I think more about the History that it was involved in. The men who had to carry said weapon through jungles or in all sorts of crazy weather. The battles it was involved in and the reminder of what our Men were up against but still willing to charge up a mountain or storm an island.
Its easy to know why they are called the greatest generation.
 
I expect that this has likely already been stated, but to me, a gun is a tool, plain and simple, not unlike a knife, screwdriver, hammer, car, etc. It or they, to me, have nothing to do with anything, they are inanimate objects...period plain and simple. If a person was wearing a particular pair of shoes to trip someone down the stairs, would I avoid buying the shoes, likely not and I probably wouldn't even know. Heck, who even knows what "stuff" we have in our collections that one way or another may have been "passive participants" inanimate though they may be, in some nefarious act. I land on, the person, not the object here. I hold NO grudge against the object used.
 
I sold a very nice Colt "official police" .38 years ago that was stolen from the guy I sold it to and used to commit murder. Should I feel bad about it?

No, I sleep well, I didn't pull the trigger It was just a fun piece of steel and wood when I had it.

I doubt I would have been owning the murder weapon had it been used first, just because it probably wouldn't have been available.
It was still a nice piece of steel and wood, and was previously a military gun from the lanyard loop on the bottom of the grip from what I was told. I was happy to find it for $125. Even if it had killed someone in war.
 
Ask yourself who's hands is it safer in. Yours or someone else. If the answer is someone else............ I am available to take it off your hands.
 
I own a tool that has killed before. It's a hammer that my boss used to beat a possum to death. To me, it's just a hammer that i hit nails with. Same with snakes and shovels.
I don't see a difference whether it's a gun, knife, shovel, car, etc....It's the person's intentions behind it that determines how it's used. To me it's just crazy to blame any tool for anything.
 
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Its just a machine. The gun isn't responsible for what it's used for. I own a few firearms from WW2. They may, or may not have been used to shoot at American GI's. But that doesn't mean the guns themselves are evil. They're just machines.
 
Well, first off, how would you know? Is it the responsibility of the previous owner to disclose that piece of information (if they even know?) and I can understand the certain stigma behind such weapons used in a suicide or a mass shooting incident. I wouldn't want a gun used in that scenario either myself. If its a weapon of war used to defend our country, it's like the American flag to me. Treat it with the respect and dignity that it deserves. You wouldn't be holding that weapon if it weren't for the soldier behind that trigger initially. Just my two cents.
 
I don't think I would want to own something with symbols on it I don't agree with (like a swastika marked gun) not because it's evil in some spiritual way, I just wouldn't want anyone who saw me with it to associate that with me.

I'm not sarah winchester, I'm not worried about ghosts in the machine.
 
Nope, whether it was used to do work or otherwise doesn't bother me at all. A few years ago, a good friend ended up with a Glock that a friend of a family member used to off himself. He told me he had to get rid of it, that it bothered him to have it. I told him I'd buy it from him. He then asked me, will it not bother you? I told him nah, wouldn't bother me at all, and at least I knew it worked............lol. Yeah, I can be a sick MF'er.
 
Crime guns no thanks but milsurp I don't care. Those were shot in legitimate battles.
 
Car0linab0y said:
I got a Yugoslavia m48 a while back. Had been wanting a k98 but the deal on this was too good to pass up.

Took it out of the box and wiped the cosmoline off the outside so I could handle it. Put it in the gun safe where it sat for 4 years; normally I shoot everything on a rotational basis. Just something about it....

Traded it for something else and never looked back.
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What do you think it was that kept it in the safe?
 
holdenarm said:
What do you think it was that kept it in the safe?
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I really don't know. I didn't get any creepy feelings or anything; it just was... meh. Any other firearms I have I will pull out and check over gladly; never feel like its a chore to clean and oil or anything.

That one just didn't click. Could have been a 2x4 sitting in there. So I traded it for something else that made the next range trip.

Beats me; never picked up a rifle that wasn't interesting before or since.
 
I wouldn't have a problem owning such guns if I had any, and I certainly don't have a problem with other people owning them either.

As much as we like to reference other governments/countries/people with respect to this, we need to also consider the plain fact of the matter that we, also, are just as guilty of such heinous activities in any number of events. We have both people AND weapons which have taken part in, or been used for, pretty horrible and morally reprehensible activities.

We've slaughtered innocent people as well, whether on an individual basis by people or wholesale by government sanction. The weapons exist...and so do many such people and agencies today, as well.

Where it crosses the line is when people glorify such morally reprehensible actions through such objects. There's a difference between "this is a weapon once used by (name NAZI officer) to shoot victims in the back of the head at (name concentration camp and date)" and "this is the weapon the great (name NAZI officer) used to slaughter all those f****** Jewish @$&%$$%# which deserved what they got coming to them".

I've got no room for the BS of spreading hate and discontent with our fellow man over stupid things. But the HISTORY is both real and important, more so when it's history at it's ugliest and most horrible. Because glossing over that history and trying to cover it up is a sure fire way of making things worse, and often in the same manner as the parts we try to cover up and ignore.
 
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I think that like many things, it just depends on the circumstances. Do I want to own a handgun of a close friend that used it to commit suicide? No. A gun of someone I don’t know who used it murder his family? I’m probably okay with that since I have no emotional involvement in it.

What kills me is how the media singles out a particular firearm (Like AR’s or AK’s) and makes them out as the “most evil weapon,” as if handguns aren’t being used to murder people everyday too. Those same rifle platforms (or other guns) are probably sentimental to people who’ve used them to survive the wars/battles they fought in. End of the day, I think it’s just a case by case situation.
 
Dumb question. Its an inanimate object. Ive owned a gun that that I had to clean the blood out of the grips because it had laid in a pool of blood and brain bits for a week until they found the guy. The gun didn't kill the guy. He killed himself.
Ive own Nazi guns, Lugers, P38's etc. Even kept one luger wrapped up in a genuine Nazi window flag. You get all kinds of looks unwrapping that at the range
 
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wired said:
Dumb question. Its an inanimate object. Ive owned a gun that when I had to clean the blood out of the grips because it had laid in a pool of blood and brain bits for a week until they found the guy. The gun didn't kill the guy. He killed himself.
Ive own Nazi guns, Lugers, P38's etc. Even kept one luger wrapped up in a genuine Nazi window flag. You get all kinds of looks unwrapping that at the range
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History. It is what it is.
 
For me, the answer is “it depends”. If it is something like a SS issued weapon, or just a battlefield pick up, then no. But if it were somehow specifically traced back to a specific atrocity like where an SS officer used it to execute 100 people then I probably wouldn’t want it. I don’t find an issue with someone else not having a problem with it.

Now, if it was just owned by some horrid person, then I don’t have an issue with it. In fact, I believe I own a rifle that was owned by a guy who killed his family, went on the run, and was finally arrested and stuff. But he didn’t use the rifle to do it, was just part of his collection.
 
So there was some scerfuffle a while ago when they realized that the German Army Honor Guard was still using the K98s complete with Nazi markings they inherited from WW2. That seemed a bit inappropriate indeed.
 
Stogies said:
So there was some scerfuffle a while ago when they realized that the German Army Honor Guard was still using the K98s complete with Nazi markings they inherited from WW2. That seemed a bit inappropriate indeed.
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I was stationed in Germany in the 80's. Germany is seismically active and we had a minor earthquake one evening. 4.2 or something like that. Enough to knock my clock off the wall. Anyway I went down to the Frankfurt hospital for some reason the next day and there was a guy sweeping up from under the door way going in where the plaster they had used to cover up the Nazi eagle and swastika had broken off. It was back . Its always just under the surface in Germany.
 
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wired said:
I was stationed in Germany in the 80's. Germany is seismically active and we had a minor earthquake one evening. 4.2 or something like that. Enough to knock my clock off the wall. Anyway I went down to the Frankfurt hospital for some reason the next day and there was a guy sweeping up from under the door way going in where the plaster they had used to cover up the Nazi eagle and swastika had broken off. It was back . Its always just under the surface in Germany.
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Merrill barracks in Nurenburg had a large Nazi swastika inlaid into the floor of a room that they kept covered with a rug. This kind of stuff was everywhere in the former Nazi installations. The Army hospital in Wurzburg had statues of German soldiers in the facade. one of the GI rec hotels in southern Bavaria had a huge mural of WW2 German mountain troops pulling some wounded in mule drawn sleds. I traveled to a lot of the kasernes on duty and sought out this stuff. I just wish I had documented it at the time.
 
Ever toured a battleship? Most were used to create death on a large scale.

I know a few other Marines that would love to have a weapon, as they put it, with souls attached to it. Most of those lament the fact that they couldn’t keep their own service weapons because they knew what they had been used for.

Me personally I wouldn’t pay extra for a weapon that had confirmed kills. Nor would I pay less. If it’s a weapon that interests me I’ll buy it and use it.

The key word in that whole diatribe is weapon. We say guns are tools. And they are. But they are by their very nature, weapons. Weapons have but one true purpose.

And if you’re not comfortable with that knowledge buy new. But even if you buy new that weapon was also designed for a specific purpose.
 
Chdamn said:
Ever toured a battleship? Most were used to create death on a large scale.

I know a few other Marines that would love to have a weapon, as they put it, with souls attached to it. Most of those lament the fact that they couldn’t keep their own service weapons because they knew what they had been used for.

Me personally I wouldn’t pay extra for a weapon that had confirmed kills. Nor would I pay less. If it’s a weapon that interests me I’ll buy it and use it.

The key word in that whole diatribe is weapon. We say guns are tools. And they are. But they are by their very nature, weapons. Weapons have but one true purpose.

And if you’re not comfortable with that knowledge buy new. But even if you buy new that weapon was also designed for a specific purpose.
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I was one of many kids that collected dimes to purchase "The Showboat" USS North Carolina.
So by extension, I own a part of one of those 16" guns that wrecked Holy Hell on our enemies.
 
holdenarm said:
Just an open-ended question. Lots of folks here own weapons that probably saw service with Nazi Germany, fascist Spain, or Stalin's soldiers. I'm wondering whether and how people think about their own relationship to these weapons. These are not legacies I care to be a part of, despite my interest in the weapons themselves. To be clear, I'm not talking about owning *models* of gun used this way, but particular weapons that likely saw service before coming to me.

I've heard people say something like "well, the gun is just a tool" -- but this seems to be avoiding the question. I don't own other tools that killed innocent people, or took sons away from mothers simply because they wanted to protect their homeland and way of life. If you tried to sell me a knife that had been used in this way, I would look for a different knife. It's not that I feel some kind of guilt by association, so much as that I do not want to memorialize this past each time I use it.

So I'm curious how y'all think about this, if you do.

Edit, per my clarification below: Some of these answers are very interesting. Other folks seem very touchy about any question that they interpret to impugn guns! I'd like to clarify that this is not a "morality of guns" question, and not about whether all guns as such are evil. As others have acknowledged, you don't need to believe all guns are evil to be uncomfortable owning certain, particular guns. I'm not saying you ~should~ be uncomfortable owning certain guns either. I'm just asking if others have experienced this discomfort and if so, how they think about it; or if not, why not.
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Let's flip this....Do you Own any "weapons"? Or a weapon that the origins / makers / factory /development has it's
roots in the weapons you are relating to?

I don't care who used them Nazi Germany, fascist Spain, or Stalin's soldiers., let's not forget, China, Putin, or others. That "gun"
doesn't go off by itself in the cases you present. Only if your Alec Baldwin. Cars Kill, Knives kill, Louisville Sluggers. anything
can do harm, it depends on what the intent is.
So with that "I don't own other tools that killed innocent people, or took sons away from mothers" Look no farther Than NYC
Chicago, L.A. People beat up / killed, with cars, hammers, pipe, screwdrivers, "sucker punched", knives, I think you get the point
Now on to my next question, "do you feel it's right to arm the IRS and for them to have Millions of rounds just to collect taxes"
Do you feel it's alright for a police dept. to come down your streets in MRAD's armed with military hardware.
Same with a government that runs guns and loses track of them and gets an agent killed
Think really hard on this one mentioned above, 87,000 new IRS agents, millions of rounds in ammo / new guns and a posting on
their website job posting "use deadly force if necessary" to be a new agent, how does that "sit" with you?

I'm not "touchy", love a good debate, but.... way to many variables to comment on.
Finally I was robbed by my ex's son long ago, they got caught, one shot himself
in the leg, got the guns back, do I care that a robber shot himself..NO, but what's
funny the parents of the kid that shot himself wanted to sue me...Priceless

My "weapons" are investments (90% of them), doing better than the stock market,
and my 401k

-Snoopz
 
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I know for a fact I have a pistol that was used in a suicide back in the 70's. It belonged to a distant relative. Honestly it doesn't matter/bother me at all. Like most folks said it's just inanimate object that has no good or evil in it. I also have a M1 carbine and Endfeild that may of seen bloodshed. Still the same for me, I feel no different!
 
I've never met a gun I didn't like. If a gun was used in war, a robbery ,a murder or suicide it doesn't change the gun , It just proves that it works. I know I have atleast 2 that were used in a war/ conflict and one that was used in a suicide. I'll bet that if I laid them on a table with 10 others you could not pick out the ones that were used in these situations
 
I have a 98k my uncle brought back from WWII. Came out a town in France. Nicest 98k he had ever seen. The old owner was said to have to have voted for FDR. My Uncle shot a lot of deer with it.

My Dad got it from my Uncle son after my Uncle passed.

My Dad gave it to me. It is just a gun. Sometimes used for bad things or just to put meat on the table.
 
I bought a shotgun from a coworker once years ago. Come to find out a guy I knew from high school used it to kill himself.
 
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