I found a gun

In My Humble Opinion
1

Many years ago, when I was young and foolish(er), I took a motorcycle ride to Colorado. I checked into a cheap motel, and that evening as I was watching TV, I noticed that the TV stand looked like a speaker. For whatever reason, I decided to see if it really housed a speaker (I must’ve been bored). I got down and peeked in the back. No speaker, but I found a small leather zippered case. The contents were a small chrome or polished pistol, a couple a magazines, and some ammo. I don’t recall what the caliber was. My plan was to take it up to some safe place and do some plinking. I stuck the thing in the bottom of the duffle bag I was using as luggage, and the next day it was stolen from off my bike.

When I recounted this story in a gun thread on my motorcycle forum, I was castigated for not attempting to reunite the pistol with its owner.

I was operating under Finders v Keepers and felt no qualms about keeping it. In hindsight, the smart thing would have been to clean it of my prints and leave it where I found it.

What should I have done, and what do you suppose that gun was doing there in the first place?

2

if you were in Michigan, you should have informed the police:

"12. I found a pistol in an old house that I was fixing up. Can I get it registered in my name?

You should take it to your local police agency and they can check on the history of the pistol. They will, of course, check to make sure it is not stolen, and also for any previous registered owner. If there was a previous owner, the agency is required to send a letter to that person to determine whether they have any interest or legal claim to the pistol. If the previous owner does not respond within 6 months, has no interest in the pistol, or is not eligible to possess a pistol, the department may release it to you, providing you comply with MCL 28.422 or MCL 28.422a in obtaining a License to Purchase or Pistol Sales Record. If the owner responds, the property shall be returned to the legal owner when the law enforcement agency is reasonably satisfied of that ownership."

3

My WAG would have been that either someone was ditching a weapon that had been used in a crime, or that the stand used to be in someone’s home and at the time, someone used it to hide their own weapon and then somehow it was overlooked when the stand was sold. I personally would have first contacted the police.

4

I’d have kept it. Under the circumstances you describe, I would consider it abandonded goods – finders keepers. It sounds just like my grandma’s .25 caliber semi-auto.

5

Should have kept it. Never know when you might need a throw away piece.

6

The logical thing to do would have been to report it to the front desk at the hotel, and let them deal with it, like any normal person would do with any other personal property discovered in those circumstances. The hotel can either contact the previous occupant of your room, or the police. Either way, you’re off the hook for a weapon that may have been used in inappropriate ways.

7

The guy that lost it most likely knew where he lost it and chose not to retrieve it for some reason. The gun could very well be hot so you might be putting yourself in jeapordy carrying it around anyway.

8

I would have kept it as a personal plinking pistol. As long as you don’t shoot somebody with it, or otherwise bring it to the attention of the authorities it doesn’t matter how hot it is. The fact that it was cased with spare mags leads me to believe that it was just forgotten.

9

Did you not grow up watching road-trip adventure movies? You’re lucky you didn’t end up being chased around the world by a drug cartel with a hot blonde hanging onto you.

Then again, that doesn’t sound so bad…

10

One night quite a few years ago, I was driving around aimlessly at about midnight, just looping around the territory near home (pissy fight with the SO, didn’t want to go home, didn’t have any good place to hang out, if you must know). I passed one quiet intersection about four times. The first time I noticed something in the middle of the intersection. The second time, I noticed it had a very peculiar and distinctive shape. Third time, passing lights gave me a better look. About then I was low on gas and just went home. It wasn’t until about 3:00 am that all the pieces fell together.

I’ve been convinced ever since that it was an Uzi, Ingram, Skorpion or other compact LMG, and spent a long time wishing I’d stopped to see. There’s a dandy thing to have had in a throwaway box, eh?

(The area was so-so suburbia but there was a VERY bad pocket just a few blocks away, a row of shitty apartments the cops only approached in fours, so it wasn’t completely out of the question that someone dropped or tossed such a weapon there.)

11

no one would have forgotten a gun in a place like that in a hotel.

they hid it there, with the intent of it not being discovered.

against all odds, you found it

because you failed to notify the police (and not the hotel office - they would have just kept it) it is very likely that a crime, possibly / likely a murder, went unsolved.

and it very well could have had a “reward for information leading to the arrest” well into the thousands, even tens of thousands.

not far from me this week, someone ambushed a state police officer. shot him dead

suppose that gun was used in a similar crime, and your were caught with it?

12

Bullshit.

What part of “cased with several spare magazines” didn’t you understand? Hardly the MO of a murderer. That’s even disregarding the fact that the over-whelming majority of killings are spur of the moment things. What were they saving the weapon for, another murder?

:rolleyes:

13

depending upon the seediness of the hotel, I would have turned it over to the front desk or called the Po Po. I am a believer in energy prints left on items that could invite Karma to exact a tax on the holder of found item. It was stolen from you shortly after so was not yours to begin with but your energy stayed in the loop with the gun and its history, whatever history it was.

14

Finders-Keepers? This isn’t the jungle. In a civilized society, you ought to make a good-faith effort to get valuable property back to its owner. Guns in particular are registered, and so turning it over to the police would have probably allowed them to get the gun back to its rightful owner.

15

Just from a personal perspective, I’d say factors weigh against keeping it. Guns aren’t exactly difficult to get most places. Whereas you don’t know if this one was stolen or used in a crime. In my personal calculaton, the rewards of plinking would not outweigh the hassles that could result if I were found with it.

Say you laid your bike down, and were taken to the hospital, and a routine inventory of your stuff turned up the gun.

In one way of thinking, what you did was among the worst things that could have happened. Not trying to beat you up over some past mistake. Just saying, instead of tossing it in a lake, rendering it inoperable, or turning it in to cops, through your actions it ended up in the hands of someone whose morality includes stealing from other people.

16

[Every TV Cop Show Ever] They cops would just hold him for a while thinking that he was the killer, but then release him after he sincerely told them that he found it in a hotel and he couldn’t possibly have done it because his alibi checks out. [/Every TV Cop Show Ever]

17

Triple Bullshit.

the Newton, CT school shooter had multiple magazines (in fact, his gun jammed AFTER he emptied one and was loading another)

cite:

and it was hardly spur of the moment.

In 2005, 75% of the 10,100 homicides committed using firearms in the United States were committed using handguns.

Ever heard of the Port Arthur Massacre? Martin Bryant killed 35 people in 1996 using multiple magazines.

The VA Tech mass shooter (Cho) used a handgun and multiple magazines.

Aurora, CO movie theatre, Gabby Gifford in Tuscon

I never said the MAJORITY of gun crimes involved multiple magazines - I am only suggesting the probability this one was. When you are dealing with 10,000 gun murders (and many times more crimes with guns, such as bank robberies), any % of these crimes is a substantial number. And a gun hidden in a TV stand in a motel room is NOT a likely place a law abiding person would stash their Glock for the night.

FYI my own sister, just this spring, was given a handgun with magazines & bullets from a female friend, whose hubby decided to confront their neighbors with this gun over them disturbing the peace (racing an engine they were working on at 7am).
Police arrived (they live in the country, so it took a while) - hubby was already back home - gun stored. He admitted it, and was booked. His wife hid the gun and magazines, and gave them to my sister. AFAIK, no crime doing so.
Even before Newtown, their were more guns in the USA than citizens (there has been a massive rush to buy guns since then - if fact more guns sold under Obama’s watch than in any other year), and more USA people killed per year (10K) than per year in the Vietnam War ( 58K total) .
I do gamble, - was just at a casino last night - and I would bet everything in my wallet a gun found hidden in a TV stand in a hotel room, was used in a crime.
Why do you even suggest a law abiding traveler would store their gun and magazines inside a TV stand in a hotel?

The only difference between your logic and a cowboy in the field, is with the cowboy, the bullshit is outside of the boots.

PS it doesn’t matter if you found a gun, if you are in possession of a stolen gun, you get arrested (ask Katt Williams, the comedian).

18

Also, I never suggested the possible perp was saving the gun. I clearly stated the opposite.
IMHO the odds are the perp hid the gun and magazines in the hotel TV stand, versus tossing it in a creek, or field, since most police dragnets find guns in creeks and fields. However, they can not enter random hotel rooms to search for a gun, without probable cause.
I legally CCW, often from Indiana to Miami, and the states in between reciprocate the CCW from my state. I always carry spare magazines. I keep them in a locked briefcase if travelling with others, or on the nightstand if alone.

To suggest a law abiding CCW registered traveler would stash a gun and magazines inside an unlocked hotel TV stand, is ludicrous.

To suggest a criminal would store it there intentionally, with the thought that he/she would return to that hotel at a latter date (and somehow get the same room) to use the gun again, is even more ludicrous

A perp would want to rid themselves of the magazine and bullets that could tie them to the gun used, not just the gun. And stashing it in a hotel room (likely paid for with cash - so no records) where the police can not enter, is far better than tossing it in a creek or field, where a K-9 or scuba diver would find it.

There was a case recently, where a murderer hid a dead body under the hotel bed, and one of the next patrons complained to the staff that his room had a foul smell. They searched his room each day, and told him they found nothing. Eventually, the stench was so bad, they did look under the bed, in the wooden , walled in box frame, and there was a dead body.

The point is, a hotel room is an ideal place to conceal a gun used in a crime . And it is not an ideal place for a law abiding person to stash a gun. Esp in a TV stand.

19

Welp. I give up. The absolutely morally correct thing to do that is plainly obvious to anyone with half a conscience is to not even touch it, but look up the local police phone number and report it to them.

I honestly am sickened by all the people who believe that they have some sort of right to just take it and keep it.

20

exactly.

its not the monetary value of the gun; its the fact that it very, very likely was involved in a crime.

also, bonus points for mentioning not to even touch it, as it would damage the finger prints.