Why You Shouldn’t Trash Your Gun Until You Know What’s Wrong

By G. Halek

I’ve seen it all the times on the gun forums. A new gun owner comes onto the site and posts pictures of his gun in some state of minor malfunction and claims that the pistol is completely unusable because of that one malfunction.

“I picked up a brand new (insert gun here) and here’s a picture of a stove pipe.

…mumble mumble mumble…

I’m getting rid of it. What should I pick up?”

Whoa, hold up!

Before you trash a gun (or sell it used on the market), here’s a couple things you should consider:

• You’re not going to get the price you paid for it (usually)
• You may be tossing away a completely good handgun that just needs some easy care!
• There’s more that can go wrong with a gun than the gun itself
• Don’t dismiss ‘operator error’ as a cause

If you bought your handgun “new in box” (NIB), you’re probably not going to get the price you paid for it. If you bought it used, you’re definitely not going to get the full price for it. Selling a gun as a private individual, you’re most likely going to deal with a vendor with a Federal Firearm License. Unless your handgun is in high demand — like a …Read the Rest