Maybe irrelevant but, is $40k a lot for a gun? I’m aware that there are many cheaper, but are there others in this range?
this post was submitted on 21 Mar 2025
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It’s way too much. The value in this case is so high because it’s an old historic firearm.
With modern production capabilities you can buy brand new rifles for ~1000€ or handguns for a couple or 100€s. They just shoot as straight, if not better. Modern assault rifles cost around 1500-5000€s the last time I checked. Without full auto mode though, because they are illegal for civilians here in Germany (no civilian needs an assault rifle IMO). But technically/price wise I imagine the difference to be negligible between the two variants.
But some weapons from that period were masterpieces. Back then they had more or less only manually operated machines that needed a lot of experience and skill. A Mauser 98 for example can still be bought as a new weapon today. A century old design built today costs 10000€ upwards.
There's also the fact that it's a pre-1986 machine gun. Machine guns manufactured after that period are illegal to own as an unlicensed civilian in the US. The fact that it's a legal machine gun adds a few zeros to the overall value. Beaten up M16s receivers (the serialized bit of an AR-15) can go for over $10000 alone and you still need to build the rest of the gun on that receiver. All of that money just to have a legal machine gun in the US
Semi-automatic rifles are also illegal for civilians in Germany. You can buy a hunting rifle, if you have a license, but those are bolt action.
That’s not correct. You can just walk into a shop, show some papers, pay ~3,5k€ and buy a H&K MR308 or some other semi auto rifle if you like.
But getting this privilege costs quite a bit of work and money: You have to go to a hunting school, learn a lot of stuff, prove that you’ve really learned everything, show you are able to use weapons in a safe manner, prove your ability to shoot etc. Also you get screened by the police on a regular basis. And if you ever get in serious trouble with the law the chances are high you’ll lose everything.
So it’s not like in other countries, that basically having at least one finger is enough to operate a Gatling gun in your backyard 😉
People who give up historic firearms for destruction instead of finding a buyer that will allow the public to experience them in a safe manner suck.
You can make a new MP44 with a lot of effort, you can't make a new MP44 with a history that highlights the efforts and accomplishments of a man who grew up dirt poor and went to Europe to bring some freedom to a family that still has photos of him after he fought for 36 hours to keep a failed painter with a dumb mustache from feeling any sense of contentment and all he got was spicy nostalgia and a gun his wife would later go on to use to spit on his memory all for the low price of a $150 gift card to HEB.
Firstly its an Stg44, secondly her father brought it back not her husband, thirdly it wasnt lovingly maintained in a collection it was just an old gun so poorly kept it was inoperable unsecured sitting in his closet, it looked like a rusty old piece of shit. Fourthly, the police recognised that it wasnt just some bangers .38 hipoint, took the gun for safe keeping and are helping the owner sell it legally as a collectable.
The woman did the right thing, an unsafely kept old gun is just that, historical provenance be damned.
It's either unsafe or it's operable.
Also, bangers use 22's because despite popular beliefs, they're effective and quieter.
All guns are unsafe until you have checked and cleared them. Im guessing the lady who didnt know what the hell she had didnt know how to release the magazine or check the chamber.
It can be both. A bomb that was a dud can still eventually explode. Just not when you wanted it to.
Idk man. The odds don't work like that. You ever seen a firearm someone has taken care of malfunction? Odds are it won't fire. Leave it somewhere for almost a century unkept? It's done.
Shit randomly malfunctions all the time. Never assume that a gun is totally safe just because you maintain it.
What I'm saying is, 99% of the time, a malfunction leads to it not firing even when you want it to.
Why do you assume everybody would know the value of a random knick knack they have lying around?