As an advocate of the 2nd Amendment and firearm owner, I’m also all for these buyback programs. If people want to get a gift card for their gun, that’s up to them. But for crying out loud, if you’re going to do that, please check to make sure you’re not handing over a firearm that’s historical and valuable. Just sayin’
The LAPD’s gun buyback events are always good for seeing what types of crazy weapons people drop off. This weekend’s special holiday edition was not a disappointment: apparently someone dropped off an assault rifle used by the Nazis in World War 2.
Even Chief Charlie Beck was in awe of the weapon, calling it “The granddaddy of all assault weapons,” according to the L.A. Times. Beck went on to say that the weapon was worth over $15,000.
In all, 817 pistols, shotguns and assault rifles were collected by the police, a noticeable drop from last year, when 2,037 weapons were collected. That year, an actual rocket launcher was dropped off at the station in exchange for a gift card. In 2010, somebody dropped off a grenade.
We may never know the identity of the former owner of the historic rifle or the motivation behind dropping it off. We just hope the Ralph’s gift card was worth it.
Heh.
WOW! Some fool actually turned in a German StG (MP) 44 in a gun buy back program? The s**t is going to hit the fan when they realize what they’ve done!
This has been happening since the idea of gun buybacks was thought up. I remember seeing a table full of guns on a buyback years ago on a local news story. First thing I noticed, along with hundreds of other viewers, was an engraved Benelli shotgun….really, really expensive. If I remember, the buyback was 50 bucks a gun….
If some sleazy pawn shop operator published a bunch of ads urging people to give him old coins in exchange for a box of corn nuts, and then he pawed through the loot at the end of the day and found some valuable gold that gullible or senile people had dropped off, and he found this amusing — well, he’d be widely regarded as a jerk and a predator.
Wow, possibly ~$15,000 Rifle in exchange for a Ralph’s Gift Card, what an Idiot.
The LAPD not “checking” on the people turning in Weapons, sounds like a good Murder Weapons Dump, what Idiots.
Sniff, Sniff, I smell an LAPD Black Market.
LAPD needs the extra money to pay for police brutality lawsuits.
You probably meant your comment as a joke but you could turn out to be correct, Hornet.
I wonder how many criminals turn in their weapons at these buybacks.
Here’s an article from the Daily Beast about these events. It’s almost a year old, but still relevant.
I want to revisit Pearl Harbor remembrance of 2 weeks ago. The day before, 12/6/13, a map of damage assessment as a result of the raid on Pearl Harbor was sold at auction. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/12/07/national/japanese-pearl-harbor-attack-map-fetches-425000-at-u-s-auction/
The map was drawn by Mitsuo Fuchida, the Commander of the first wave of Japanese planes and the man who instructed his plane’s radioman to issue the phrase, Tora Tora Tora. The map was used to brief Hirohito following the raid. Fuchida was at Midway, though restricted to a ship due to injury. His ship was blown up but he survived though further injured. He wrote a book about Midway from Japan’s perspective. It was made into a movie a few years ago. Following that injury he served out the war in Japan. He was at Hiroshima the day before the bombing for a week-long class, but was called back to Tokyo and avoided the bomb. He was then sent back to Hiroshima to evaluate conditions. All the men in his team died of radiation poisoning. He never showed any symptoms. Following the war, he became interested in Christianity because of the way Americans treated Japan POWs. He read the bible and converted in 1950. He obtained a U.S. green card and until he died in 1976, he was a missionary for Christ.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsuo_Fuchida