General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I am not a gun person. But for the gun persons, how about you speak out? [View all]JohnnyRingo
(18,641 posts)...but what about the quiet collector?
I'm talking about people who buy certain antiques that will never see a round fired because it hurts the value, then use it as an IRA or hand them down to heirs. How can you put a number on how many of those one should be able to own? No one has ever gone on a deadly shooting spree with a 19th century lever action Henry rifle like the one pictured below.
Collector guns are like antique cars where condition is everything. Avid car collectors are wont to add miles to their investment because the value diminishes with each drive, and guns can only be fired so many times before the violent internal explosion turns it into a rattling worn out hunk of metal. For most quality guns (read expensive), 5,000 times is the absolute life span, after which it's ready for the scrap yard. For what we used to call "Saturday Night Specials", it's much much less, but they aren't designed for anything but killing someone and tossing it in the river. The country could well do without those (and Yugos).
I sold most of my collection back in the '90s when I needed the money. Some of the antique single action Colts were in velvet lined presentation cases and unfired (a collector can tell). a couple were gold plated. Those particular guns were never built to kill anyone or anything. They were built as an investment, though deciding which ones will appreciate over time can take the shrewdness of Jim Cramer and the wherewithal of Bill Gates. As in every investment, some are blue chips, and others are penny stocks, cheap reproductions sold behind a smoke screen of hype and sentiment.
Right wing gun nut?... or enthusiast/collector?:
It'd be hard to tell unless you know her. Personally, I wouldn't worry about Rachel Maddow...nor would I assume she's defenseless.