With new gun laws, are veterans who brought home enemy weapons as souveneirs, forced to surrender their treasured war booty???

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"GARRY OWEN"-Traditional war-cry of the US 7th Cavalry.
"CURRAHEE"-War-cry of the US 506th PIR.
"Everybody thinks that they are going to get the chance to punch some Nazi in the face at Normandy-and those days are over, they are long gone"-Lt Chris Burnett

I don't know that it's so much new gun laws as new guns. A US soldier trying to bring an AK-47 back from Desert Storm is a little different than a soldier trying to bring back a K98 or an Arisaka rifle in WWII. Rifles have always been pretty common, at least in the US, anyway. I know lots of the Vietnam vets I grew up around brought back SKS carbines, but nothing automatic. I just don't think that real "rifles" are that common now a days. I'm sure that has alot to do with it here at least.

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Living History at http://oldreliable9_47.tripod.com

I met a vet of ww2 years and years ago--who had shipped back a crate full of MP-38/40's. He had also shipped back a creat full of unissued Feldgendarmerie Gorgets. I dont know if he still has any of this stuff or not.

I knew another vet who--had been a Major in the German Army in ww2--who had kept a PPSH Sub MG which he sent home--and after the war--he joined the US Army to become an American citizen--and served in combat during the Korean War. He still had his PPSH--but sold it to a Sheriff from another county several years ago.

I had heard that it was not allowed for our guys to take captured weapons and send them home during the Gulf War--I heard it was a Courts-martial offence to do so. It made many many G.I's angry that they couldnt have one as a momento.

Anyway--thats what I heard from a few friends of mine who were in Desert Shield and Desert Storm.

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

http://www.canada.com/news/story.asp...1D8B470C209%7D

War veteran hands Winnipeg police officer live Second World War grenade

Canadian Press

Tuesday, January 14, 2003

WINNIPEG (CP) - A city police officer got a potentially explosive surprise at the front desk of police headquarters Monday when an elderly man handed him a live Second World War grenade.

"His opening line was, 'I got a grenade,' " Const. Gerry Bernas recalled. "I knew he wasn't kidding."

Melvin McDonald, a 79-year-old Second World War veteran with the Canadian navy, showed up with his wife, took the explosive device out of a brown paper bag and gave it to Bernas.

The surprised officer immediately called the bomb unit.

Most of the main floor of the Public Safety Building was evacuated and the fire department was put on standby until bomb unit officers took the grenade away in a secure container.

"God, I'm sorry," said McDonald, who didn't realize he had created a ruckus.

Bernas, 44, said the precautions were necessary because the grenade "was pinned and the fuse was intact."

But McDonald explained he had locked the grenade's pin with a cotter.

"I fixed it up so you couldn't pull the pin unless you had a pair of pliers," he said.

McDonald, who was born in Winnipeg, said the grenade was a keepsake from an early 1940s training exercise in northern Scotland.

"I've had it in the house all these years. I used to have it on a stand."

He said he recently decided it was time to dispose of the grenade, so, acting on advice from his nephew, he turned it over to police.

Police spokesman Const. Bob Johnson discouraged citizens from delivering explosive devices on their own.

"Please call police and we will arrange for a pickup. Don't drop it off on our front counter," Johnson said.

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"The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here." - Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 19, 1863
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Crapgame--all I can say is: Good Grief!!!!!!!

[ 15. January 2003, 02:51 PM: Message edited by: C.Evans ]

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.