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You know, with 50 guns in the vault, few of them bought new, about half are handguns - yeah, probably at least one has been used to kill a person. But, does not bother me, as noted above, the gun didn't kill, the shooter killed. And maybe the person killed desperately needed killing. In the case of the Garand, that's quite possible.
I collect some ww2 guns. I have wondered if any of them ever took someones life. Its a strange feeling thinking you own something that killed someone.
Some years ago, I bought a Browning T-Series High Power, and for those of you that don't know the T-Series was a production run of the Browning High Power during the Lower to Mid 1960's; A friend had it traced it to a lot of firearms that were sold to the England from late 1963 - 1964. That weapon was in the British arsenal during Vietnam. It is quite possible that it was carried as a side arm for a soldier. It actually made me quite proud to own something that might have saved a soldier life.
I would say not likely. The reasons being several:
1.) Surplus by definition is "excess supply". Governments make much more than they need just in case. Many of these rifles never left the warehouse and just ended up straight from there to the private market.
2.) "Tooth to tail" ratio's being what they are (what is it - 20 to 1 now?m 50 to 1?), even if they did make it to a soldier their is very little likelihood that this soldier ever will fire a shot in anger. Otherwise it's used for training or way behind the front lines, on otherwise relatively safe guard duty, or on supply routes during times of combat, and stuff like that.
3.) It appears that captured enemy weapons, as a rule, are destroyed after combat operations. This was documented in a book "With the Old Breed" (WW2 pacific campaign) where the writer describes on several occasions his orders to destroy weapons found after a battle - literally breaking them in pieces and dumping them in rivers, etc.
If you own a Springfield 03, the likelihood of it being in combat is extremely high. There are just a handful at most of those that aren't rebuilds from combat. Some have been rebuilt as many as 8 times during WWII and Korea. Same goes with the Garands and carbines. So the chances are the rifle saw some action, enough to be rebuilt several times in its life. And so you are aware, if the weapon has a letter mark on the stock like SAA, that's the rebuild arsenal tag stamp. If the weapon has a single dent at the front of the action at the bolt lug, that's the rebuilders mark. The jist here is many that are sold as "new" are actually rebuilds out of the armory or commercial rebuilder. The only unused weapons that I'm aware of are those in the Springfield library.
While they may have destroyed weapons during WWII, they don't do it anymore and haven't since Korea. They pick up the enemies weapons, refurbish them at the arsenals and then we give them to our "friends" to defend themselves. It's been a good while since our Gov't sold any "as new" manufactured weapons to the public. Most have been the worn out rebuilds and even at that its been a while. We've given thousands away to our friends like South Korea and others to help us against the commies. Your current resident in the white house won't allow them back into the USA. S Korea wanted to sell 30,000 M1 carbines to a wholesaler in the states and he said no. That all might change if we get a gun friendly president. I'd like to find a rebuilt carbine with Marchant name on the action to go with the several Marchant 03s I own. But the current prices are ridiculous.
First off I never asked anyone if it bothered them. My point is also not surplus boonie hats. Surplus guns are a far different thing than a unused c ration. Most guns I am talking about are things such as K98, Garand, M1 Carbine, 03a3, Colt 1911 and variants, P38s and the like. I would say surplus guns like Russian Capture have a high chance they were used in war and killed someone. Its part of the history and mystique of the collecting. Where was it and what battles did if fight in. As far as the "my gun never killed anyone" this is not an anti gun bumper sticker argument.
The only military collectible that I have is a stainless steel spoon with a small German eagle and swastika stamped on the back of the handle, which my dad found laying on the ground at the North Severn Naval Station some time in the mid-'50's. I don't think that anybody was killed with it.
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