Taking home guns from wars

[Edward1976]

I have a future brother in law living overseas who asked me this question today, maybe you can help: was there ever a time in US history when returning soldiers were allowed to keep their rifles/sidearms? I'm not big on war history so I wasn't much help. Answers?

 

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[Citiboy289]

Civil War Grant allowed it to the confederates I believe the regular federal union troops were offered the chance to purchase theirs ------- Local Vols I think kept theirs

 

[onfire]

The question (Allowed) Depends how you sent them home. pieces worked best, Getting a Beretta double over there was easier That was good for a year of "Me so Horny"

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

The question (Allowed) Depends how you sent them home. pieces worked best, Getting a Beretta double over there was easier That was good for a year of "Me so Horny"

Correct, you could ship anything home in pieces.

When I was in Okinawa during Nam war I knew a lot of guys who shipped home motorcycles in pieces. We had free mail service so they bought bikes and shipped them home in pieces.

Same thing works with guns.....

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

[Uncle Jeff]

Always done. But not so always legal LOL .. that is the truthful answer........

 

[BosnMate]

Well lets see, I know one WWII guy, a veteran of the South Pacific, who still has his model 1911 45 ACP (automatic colt pistol) belt and holster, and I'm sure his rich Uncle Sam didn't know he kept it. My uncle, 3rd Marine Division WWII, brought two Japanese rifles home from Guam. I think he mailed them to my Dad, but don't know that for sure. Lots of guys in Europe were able to acquire German Luger's, which were very sought after, and those guys brought them home. The gun control act of 1964 kind of put a stop, or at least made it much more difficult for guys to bring guns home. I know of one gun from Viet Nam. A sapper was trying to get through the wire at Da Nang and tripped a Claymore. A fellow I know got his gun and brought it home. I own a 1861 Colt Army that was carried by a Union Colonel, and he brought it home when he was discharged. In the 1920's my uncle bought the gun from his widow, and I inherited the gun from my Uncle, who lived to 102 years old. I think now it would be very difficult to bring a gun home, and no doubt against the law.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Yeah, I shipped my stereo system home from Vietnam.....

It never arrived....

 

[pippinwhitepaws]

many veterans brought home weapons...the BATF set a cutoff date on legalization of these weapons around 1968...too may AK's were showing up.
I can not find the exact date... after 1969, no selective fire weapon could be legalized for private ownership...what ever selective fire weapons were on the market...that was it...this limited the number of legal automatics to a finite number...
this clearly excluded any future veteran bring backs...but allows manufacture of to a severely limited group.

 

[BVI Hunter]

Still lots of stuff coming back from Iraq when I was there some years back, including unexploded rockets from the daily IDF.
Some guys used to dig them up, get the EOD to make them "safe" and them ship them back in all sorts of weird and wonderful ways.......