killchain
Member
I'm having a bit of a dilemma here involving a pistol and I could use some advice. First, the back story.
I had a really good friend who died recently. He (the son) was the son of a career military man (the father.) He was an only son. He was in his late 20's just like me.
His father spent 16 years in the Navy as an officer during the Cold War, and was a National Guardsman during Desert Storm right up until the Iraq War, which at that point he had retired from the National Guard. He was a Weapons Inspector in Iraq in 2003, and was then diagnosed with bone cancer. He died in 2009 from the bone cancer.
My friend (the son) received a Batchelor's in Physical Science from his college right before his father died. I sincerely believe that the father was hanging on to see him receive a degree, because he died a week after the ceremony. When his father passed, he remained living in the father's home, everything where his father left it. His father had left him a substantial amount of money, so he spent two years unemployed and becoming gradually more withdrawn.
Due to recent events, it seems his father's death hit him a lot more than we all expected.
The son committed suicide. I found out because his mother called me out of the blue. She had never called me before in my life. Being the person I am, I told her I would help any way I could.
That's what I ended up doing. The mother couldn't handle the stress of properly cleaning out the property, so it fell upon myself and the group of friends we had grown up with. There is something to be said about learning about the career of a man you had barely met and finding out that you would have really liked to meet that person, but you can't.
See, I'm a career man too. Not only was the son one of my best friends, but I felt a strong sense of duty to square this all away for the mother because the father was a fellow service member. She has no family left, but at least she's got a little part of the Army. I'm in no way trying to glorify myself, I just believe that for the situation I'm building up to asking about, this is relevant.
The local PD investigated and closed the suicide case. My friend had used a 1911 pistol to do it. The mother consented to release the pistol to me. And two days ago I went and picked it up from the PD.
I cleaned it late in the night so no one but me would see it. I'm a married man and one of my really good friends who helped in all of this is our room mate (economy sucks right now,) and I felt that being the trained one and the leader of this whole thing, it was my responsibility to do it. I've been deployed, been in firefights, had the sky exploding around me and been scared as anyone could be... but I have to admit that the most dread I have ever felt in my life was staring at that cardboard evidence box and preparing to open it.
It's clean now. I haven't shot it. I might not ever shoot it. But my main question for everyone here is, "What would you do with it?"
It's obviously a carry gun. It has a great finish with telltale signs of holster wear, but not bad wear. I know it was the father's, and was passed to the son. He wasn't much of a gun guy due to his political views (One of the big things I miss was the lively debates.) I had shot it before this incident, and it shoots like you would expect a 1911 made by Colt to shoot: well.
I'm looking for advice. I honestly feel like it's almost like a clan sword that has no clan anymore, and that I'm supposed to keep it safe. But I also know what it was used for. BUT, I also know that it's just a tool and that tools don't do work, people do.
Thank you for reading this and taking the time to answer.
I had a really good friend who died recently. He (the son) was the son of a career military man (the father.) He was an only son. He was in his late 20's just like me.
His father spent 16 years in the Navy as an officer during the Cold War, and was a National Guardsman during Desert Storm right up until the Iraq War, which at that point he had retired from the National Guard. He was a Weapons Inspector in Iraq in 2003, and was then diagnosed with bone cancer. He died in 2009 from the bone cancer.
My friend (the son) received a Batchelor's in Physical Science from his college right before his father died. I sincerely believe that the father was hanging on to see him receive a degree, because he died a week after the ceremony. When his father passed, he remained living in the father's home, everything where his father left it. His father had left him a substantial amount of money, so he spent two years unemployed and becoming gradually more withdrawn.
Due to recent events, it seems his father's death hit him a lot more than we all expected.
The son committed suicide. I found out because his mother called me out of the blue. She had never called me before in my life. Being the person I am, I told her I would help any way I could.
That's what I ended up doing. The mother couldn't handle the stress of properly cleaning out the property, so it fell upon myself and the group of friends we had grown up with. There is something to be said about learning about the career of a man you had barely met and finding out that you would have really liked to meet that person, but you can't.
See, I'm a career man too. Not only was the son one of my best friends, but I felt a strong sense of duty to square this all away for the mother because the father was a fellow service member. She has no family left, but at least she's got a little part of the Army. I'm in no way trying to glorify myself, I just believe that for the situation I'm building up to asking about, this is relevant.
The local PD investigated and closed the suicide case. My friend had used a 1911 pistol to do it. The mother consented to release the pistol to me. And two days ago I went and picked it up from the PD.
I cleaned it late in the night so no one but me would see it. I'm a married man and one of my really good friends who helped in all of this is our room mate (economy sucks right now,) and I felt that being the trained one and the leader of this whole thing, it was my responsibility to do it. I've been deployed, been in firefights, had the sky exploding around me and been scared as anyone could be... but I have to admit that the most dread I have ever felt in my life was staring at that cardboard evidence box and preparing to open it.
It's clean now. I haven't shot it. I might not ever shoot it. But my main question for everyone here is, "What would you do with it?"
It's obviously a carry gun. It has a great finish with telltale signs of holster wear, but not bad wear. I know it was the father's, and was passed to the son. He wasn't much of a gun guy due to his political views (One of the big things I miss was the lively debates.) I had shot it before this incident, and it shoots like you would expect a 1911 made by Colt to shoot: well.
I'm looking for advice. I honestly feel like it's almost like a clan sword that has no clan anymore, and that I'm supposed to keep it safe. But I also know what it was used for. BUT, I also know that it's just a tool and that tools don't do work, people do.
Thank you for reading this and taking the time to answer.
