Apparently I now have one. I bought an old Colt 1903 (manufactured in the 1920s), it's worn but still shoots and functions fine. Now when I went to buy it (and I had already paid so it wasn't a sales pitch), I was told it was traded in by a Warrington Twp police officer who acquired it from seized evidence. I jokingly said, "oh well at least it didn't get used to kill anyone", to which I was told it apparently was used to kill two people trying to break into a guys house and the cop later acquired it after it no longer had evidentiary value/need. Now it could all be gun store bull, but there was no reason to tell me it as I had already bought the item. Now I can't (or haven't tried yet) to verify it's history), but it gives the gun an odd vibe when I hold it.
Though I guess it's a bit silly (as I know objects don't have personalities of their own and if you own milsurp there is a good chance it might have been used in combat), anyone else ever feel odd owning one?
I own my father's 45 muzzleloader that he used to shoot himself in the head.
I'm also pretty damn certain that a few of my guns were used to kill others - notably, the German MG34 and German MG42. Probably the 1933 Spanish Mauser, too, and a good chance my old '03 Springfield, which served in TWO world wars.... Those guns weren't built for show, or shooting paper targets. Those were built in (or just prior to) wartime, and used for war.
It goes part and parcel with being a military arms collector - there's a certain reverence I have towards those old guns. When I shoot them, I shoot them with respect, and with a mindset which is respectful for those who may have shouldered them in the past.
But, as my wife put it:
I said, last night... "It's kind of creepy, in a way " (looking at the new-to-me German MG34 sitting in the livingroom floor) .. " that gun may have killed a lot of people."
My wife looks over and says "That gun hasn't killed anyone."
Confused, I look back at her .. "How in the hell do you figure THAT? You weren't there, neither was I.. we don't know."
She said "I know that gun hasn't killed anyone. At one point the bullets that came OUT of it might have killed people, but the gun itself didn't kill anyone. I doubt anyone used it to beat someone to death. It's too big and doesn't have one of those pointy things you can put on the end."
I looked at her, pretty surprised, and said "So you don't mind if we hang it on the wall?"
"As long as that means you won't leave it sit on the damn livingroom carpet like you did those others for a month!"
Gotta love 'er.
