Rare Firearm Saved From Scrap Heap By Virginia Community

By Tom Knighton

The idea of rare or valuable firearms being destroyed is always painful when you’re a gun person. It’s part of why so many of us hate looking at pictures from gun buybacks throughout the country. In and amongst the trash guns most wouldn’t shoot on a dare, there are occasional treasures that we would trade various body parts for.

However, when police in Chesapeake, VA came across a Strumgewehr 44, the city decided not to be stupid about it.

Virginia’s Chesapeake City Council voted last week to donate rather than destroy a rare World War II firearm believed to have popularized the term “assault rifle.”

The Sturmgewehr 44 (StG44) was developed by German gunsmith Hugo Schmeisser in 1942 and was used by the Nazis through the end of the war. Germany produced about 426,000, but because few ended up on North American shores, NFA-compliant models are worth nearly $30,000.

The Chesapeake Police Department confiscated the StG44 in April of 2009 after finding one in a van involved in several hit-and-runs, according to the Virginian-Pilot. The driver, Eugene McGee, was convicted of felony hit-and-run and had his Second Amendment rights revoked.

But rather than destroy the firearm, …Read the Rest

Source:: Bearing Arms