Nonsense, Johnny. His OP explicitly contemplated how to use the illegal weapon (“it is not something I am going to put over the mantle above the fireplace,” “I can’t use it for hunting if I were to go hunting”) and rejected the legal option of turning it over to the authorities because “I am then out $50 and that is not a prospect that I look forward to.” That is decidedly not an OP asking “How do I comply with the law.”
And certainly, Johnny, your joking advice in that thread was hardly a legal course of action. Hey, way to make the point that the guy was asking how to “comply” with the law.
So, I won this kilo of coke in a card game last night. So what do I do with it? I know it is illegal so it is not something I am going to put on the curio cabinet. Should I turn it over to the police? I am then out $5000 and that is not a prospect I look forward to. I can’t snort it, because coke makes my sinuses act up. So what am I to do with it.
You’re wrong, Minty. He didn’t contemplate how to use it in the OP. He stated ways that it could not be used.
The OP asked what to do with it, not how do I continue to break the law. Put another way, the question would be this: “How do I comply with the law without losing fifty bucks?” He was not asking how to acquire an illegal firearm. He was not asking how to convert a legal firearm into an illegal one. He wanted to know how he can abide by the law and not lose his money.
(FWIW, I did say that I would not have so much as touched it in the first place; but since he did take it, my question is this: If the guy was such a poor poker player, why not just let him lose the $50 to you? You get to play some more, and it doesn’t cost you anything. Back to Minty…)
Some of the advice was iffy from a legal standpoint (burying it, throwing it in a lake, etc.), but if such actions are illegal, then they are lesser evils than keeping it.
I and others advised destroying the gun or rendering it legal by removing and destroy the illegal parts. AFAIK, it is not illegal to destroy a gun (although I think it’s illegal to destroy the s/n).
So the OP was asking what he should do (which definitely implies that he wants to comply with possession laws), and most of the advice was to bring the gun into compliance or destroy it. Nothing wrong with that.
I think it is unclear exactly what happened IRL and the exact chain of events. Nonetheless, I feel that he was not left hanging, and had several good options given to him for legal and lawful disposal. He should have written-off the $50 immediately, and not fussed about that.
Me, I would have immediately melted it into slag with my acetylene torch, and binned it, rather than turning it in.
I could easily see how an illegal sawed-off shotgun could be acquired in this manner. I’ve also seen people willed or given firearms which were illegal, or were of questionable legality. “Sawed-off” does not in and of itself mean “illegal”. And depending on your locale and the disposition of your police department, turning it in immediately to the police, while the correct “textbook” answer, may also result in you yourself being up on felony charges yourself - for trying to do the right thing. Sure, they may not stick, but what are you going to do with yourself after spending about $50,000 to defend yourself from a federal firearms prosecution?
The OP only says it’s a “sawed-off shotgun”. As someone else pointed out, it’s not illegal to shorten the barrel unless the length is less than the minimum length required. When I posted my joke, there was no mention of the actual length, and so it may well have been in compliance as far as anyone knew.
And clearly, my original response was a joke, as even you were able to see. Once the situation was made clear, you can see that I and others advised actual ways of bringing it into compliance or of destroying it.
As I read the OP in the other thread, I would have taken the damned gun and been happy. I would not like to be in the position of telling a man with a shot gun in his hands to go get stuffed when I don’t know if it is loaded and can’t tell if he may be just pissed enough at the world to pull the trigger. I’d give him the fifty bucks, take the damned thing to make certain I’d be able to go on breathing, and then I’d worry about legalities. It sounded to me like TV Time had pretty much the same reaction to the situation: Get the gun out of the other guy’s hands and then worry about getting rid of it.
Re-read the OP of that thread. I think TV Time did the right thing in the crunch. I also think he should (anonymously) turn it over to the cops. Anything else is asking for trouble. I also agree that the thread needed to be closed. Technically, the Chicago Reader now has information on someone who is currently breaking a federal law. This makes them, technically, an accessory to the crime.
But several other people also advised courses of action that were clearly illegal, and your joking advice was to lose it in another card game, thereby compounding the crime of possessing an illegal weapon with the crime of transferring an illegal weapon. Moreover, “lesser” illegal actions are still (get this) illegal. The mods were well within their discretion and the stated policies of the Reader to lock that sucker down.
I can see that you obviously don’t unserstand the concept of a joke. I also see that you are unable to comprehend the written word:
Note that the actual dimensions had not yet been made clear.
Frankly, it sounds to me as if you are arguing just for the sake of arguing. (There’s a word for that, BTW.)
Are you high? That’s just begging to be prosecuted. “Go to the police” is wonderful, high minded advice for children, IRL, they’ll charge you in a second and not care about the circumstances. It happens every day.
Amen, Weirddave.
I still think that, despite going to the PD being the only legal option, discussion of alternative, illegal, options is, and ought to be, verboten on this board. Not that I make the rules.
We ought to start a thread about how sad it is when the populace fears the police… but I’m not up for it! Yikes … that discussion could get ugly.
Not where I live. They’re happy to take guns, no questions asked, to get them off the streets. Not only that, but you can call the police on a non-emergency line – even from a pay phone, if you’re paranoid – and ask them what their policy is – “Hey I have an illegal fire arm and I want to get rid of it; what do I do?” or even “hey, I won this SOSG in a poker game; I want to get rid of it but I don’t want to get it trouble; what do I do?”
The closing of the thread was IMO absolutely the right decision. The thread was open long enough for TV TIME to get several posts on how to destroy the weapon and several posts stating the obvious legal thing to do with it – turn it in to the cops. I too was bothered by TV TIME’s repeated statement that he didn’t want to lose his $50 investment – what the hell did he think he could do with the firearm and get that money back? The only thing he could do and get the money back is sell it, which is mondo illegal. And talking about disposing of a SOSG by just leaving it somewhere where someone else might find it and use it – like a shallow lake or, God help us, someone’s lawn – is just stupid.
TV TIME realized the OP was iffy and said as much, so I doubt he’s having an issue with it being closed. But God forbid a moderator close any thread without somebody starting a Pit thread to bitch about the decison.
Yeah, I mean, do we want to lose the SDMB because of some stupid people?
And yes, I said stupid. If I were TV Time, I would never have taken the gun in the first place. It’s his own fault, and if he’s that hung up about fifty dollars…well, fifty dollars is cheap compared to what could happen if he gets caught.
Jodi: Where I live, the cop shops are thrilled to have weapons, legal or otherwise, turned into them. For one thing, it gets them off the street for a time. For another, they get to sell the weapons!
I guess it’s different in Baltimore.
In any big city police dept ( except for specific “no questions asked” get-guns-off-the-streets programs ) a person bringing a sawed off shotgun in for disposal is going to be investigated. If the circumstances of his possesion of said gun are not squeeky clean, he will be charged with a crime (TVTIME DID buy an illegal weapon, after all ). Manditory charging laws make it impossible for the cops not to, and DA’s love “I can look tough on guns without actually doing anything” cases. The chances of TVTIME doing any jail time are slim and none, but having to defend himself with a lawyer against spurolous charges? This is the likely outcome.
I don’t have an opinion either way on this. I’d just love to see a cite or two to show some evidence .
Quite so. That’s why you qualified your joke by stating that he should only get rid of the gun by means of another card game if it was indeed illegal:
Yes, Johnny, I get that it was a joke. I also get that your joking advice was to do something illegal. You were hardly the only one in that thread offering illegal advice, the OP practically invited it, and that’s why the thread was closed, just as any such thread would have been closed.
And you are welcome to draw any conclusion you like about me. My feelings will be entirely unhurt if you think I’m an asshole for daring to defend the perfectly defensible.
Oh, I don’t think you’re an asshole because of that, Minty! 
** [joke]** 
FWIW, I didn’t have any problem with the thread being closed. But I thought you were wrong when you said:
I don’t think that he was asking how to break the law, but was asking how to comply with it.
Okey doke, I’m happy with that, Johnny. Just didn’t want anybody thinking like the OP appeared to be that the mods had suddenly gone jackboot on us.
Although I agree TV time was not asking how to break the law, some of the answers did explain how he could.
In New and improved registration agreement, posted by Tuba, it says, in part;
You agree, through your use of this service, that you will not use the SDMB to post any material that is knowingly false and/or defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, threatening, invasive of a person’s privacy, or otherwise* violative of any law. You agree not to post any material that in our opinion fosters or promotes illegal activity.***
[sup]Bolding mine[/sup]
Some of the responses did that, and the thread was closed.
TV Time, if you’re reading this: Don’t sweat the $50. You paid that amount to render the SOSG harmless by taking it away from someone who was losing at poker (and owns a SOSG in the first place). Small price; good deed; let it go.