BillyBob Mcoy jest watched ad them durn Hatfeilds load up the old Chevy an took off for greener pastures.
He gets lonely and decides to take off for somewheres else hisself.
He knows he is gonna need some money for gas and food and the only thing of value aside from his 66 Dodge pickup is all the guns and ammo Pa (Bless his soul) left layin around, along with auto matic guns, few grenades, maybe an IED or two.
He don’t know these are ill-eagle. So he shows up at some gun show and tries to pawn them off on some dealer.
Dealer is a good sort a fellow, but he does follow the law, how can he help BillyBob dump the ill-eagle stuff, get some coin for the leagle stuff, and not go to prison for the forseeable future? As well as cover his own butt?
All spelling is tongue in cheek, if you don’t get the question, How would a law abiding licensed Dealer help someone who does not know what he has is illegal and is just trying to get rid of it? Will assume that BillyBob will listen and follow his directions to dispose of contraband. He might be a little dumb, but he sure isn’t Stupid!
He might say something along the lines of: “IF someone had a fully automatic rifle and he brought it to me, or another dealer, or the police, there might be lots of paperwork hassles. On the other hand, if he knew someone with a welding torch who could cut it up into small pieces that could be tossed into a deep lake, he would no longer own an illegal weapon and so would be clear of the problems that can go with that.”
I think BillyBob could just call the cops and have them go through the cache of weapons and take what is illegal. That’s what happens when you find a case of dynamite that grandpa left in the shed when he died. Or he could wait for one of those things cops do where they let you turn in guns no questions asked for a gift certificate to the Sizzler.
BillyBob can’t legally liquidate the prohibited weapons as complete guns His best course of action is to part out the full-auto stuff, destroy the receivers, and sell the parts. The explosives he should leave to the bomb squad, old explosives can be touchy.
The best way is to retain an attorney and have the attorney negotiate a controlled turning-in of the weapons to the police, in a way in which the owner of the weapons will not be charged for anything whatsoever. This sort of thing is done all the time.
Sounds prohibitively expensive for Billy Bob. Calling the police would be the best and cheapest idea I’d think. Provided, of course, the illegal arms are left over from Pa in a shed, and not left over from his own personal misspent youth.
If they are illegal guns he has acquired elsewhere, but now his conscience has gotten the better of him, or he no longer wants the risk of possessing them, then destroying them privately is the best bet. Selling the legal parts is not a bad idea as someone else mentioned. Depending on the weapon, it might have some value even as a wall-hanger. He could cut it properly and still have a displayable, nonfunctioning weapon to either keep or sell.
Virtually every dealer I know would immediately suspect Billy Bob of being an undercover BATFE agent who was trying to lure them into criminal activity.
You would think that there would be something in place to help an innocent person. Maybe a police sponsored booth for disposal of illegal to own weapons where you can bring it in and get rid of it. It would also seem the police would actually be present at such an event anyway. Local ones anyway.
Federally, and in many/most of the states, a bring-back pistol or rifle isn’t a problem unless it is full-auto. There was at least one amnesty offered to properly register bring-back machineguns, I can’t remember when it was exactly. The problem with recently discovered bring-back machineguns is that the machinegun registry was closed in 1986 and it is impossible to register any additional weapons. You can’t possess it. You can’t sell it. You can’t even give it to a licensed machinegun dealer. Either you destroy it or you turn it over to the government and they will most likely destroy it.
There’re a fair few legally registered machineguns out there, though, and their owners are always looking for parts. That is why I recommend parting the guns out and destroying the receivers. As far as BATFE is concerned, the receiver is the gun and is, therefore, what is illegal. The other parts are a non-issue to them and potentially worth a lot of money to you.
Sometimes not springing for a lawyer is the wrong way to save money. I would never put my trust in the good nature of the police and prosecutors, especially if they had any sort of anti-gun bent. The police in my city are known to be extremely anti-gun, and I cannot imagine a situation where they would not try to find something to charge you with. YMMV.
Say you’ve got an AK-47, STG-44, or whatever that is definately illegal. What are your options:
1.) Arrange to turn it in to the BATF (not the local police). They could technically still prosecute you but normally choose not to in this situation.
2.) Keep it and hope there is another amnesty period. This is unlikely, and what the cops find it while searching for your son’s marijuana stash, but if there ever is another amnesty it would be worth $10,000 at the absolute miminum, and probably a lot more.
3.) Throw it into the nearest lake on a dark night. Just don’t drive drunk while speeding with your seatbelt off on the way there. This last option may be the best of the bunch.
I hate to keep harping on one point, but take a look at what parts sell for. Outfits like Numrich Gun Parts and Sarco will buy the parts from you, big quantity or small. Stripping them out of the receiver isn’t a terribly difficult. Neither is destroying the receiver. The stripping can be done with few or no tools and the receiver can be cut up with an acetylene torch. If you don’t have the torch and don’t want to rent one, I guess you could still toss the receiver in a lake.
but certainty pistols.