I found a loaded handgun in my front yard

[AcuraTech]

.45 caliber with a fully loaded clip. Sitting underneath the tree, slightly rusty. Snowbank was about 2 feet deep until a few weeks ago, most likely someone tossed it in a panic.

Called the police and they came and picked it up. Off to the crime lab. Pretty quiet neighborhood here, but it gets a bit rough with known gang activity about a mile away.

Scary, because it was laying spitting distance from my bedroom window, and also there's a little boy who lives next door often outside playing.

 

[XS650]

Do you get to keep it if no one claims it and there is no crime connection?

 

[AcuraTech]

For anyone curious, it looked something like this:

Link

Not real knowledgeable about handguns, could have been a different brand, but looked similar.

 

[xxch4osxx]

I would ask if I could keep it if it proved to be "clean"

 

[Colt45ws]

Thats a 1911. Everybody and their uncle makes a gun based on that design.

 

[AcuraTech]

Wouldn't want it if I could. I'm pro gun rights, but have no use for a hand cannon like that. It had to be hot somehow, nobody would pitch a gun like that for no reason. Even the cop mentioned that it was a name brand gun, so it had to have cost a decent amount.

 

[CharlieJ]

Criminals don't just walk into a gun store and buy a gun.

 

[crazyoildude]

keep your weapons close to you at all times and if you dont have any get some not one some
as long as you don't have a violent criminal record you can get a permit in most states if not all... Remember if you pack heat and push comes to shove shoot to kill its usually better than being dead

 

[FusilliJerry82]

I'd still want to keep it; you could easily sell a 1911 for a few hundred.

 

[mechanicx]

When I was a kid I found a Colt .45 ACP, without it's clip as I remember it, behind the service station a relative was working at. A very similar situation. My bummy brother-in-law at the time took it and sold it to a pawn shop. If i find something with no ID of the owner, I'd keep it.

 

[Big_Ed]

AcuraTech, even if you don't want it, you should still keep in touch with the police about this. Maybe someone was going to break into your house, or a neighbor's house, or was fleeing from the police and decided to ditch the gun while running by. I'd be asking lots of questions, just to keep informed if nothing else.

 

[ddrumman2004]

More than likely, they will confiscate that gun and if they are like Memphis....sell it so it can be used again.

http://www.wreg.com/news/wreg-ap-guns-story,0,2308544.story

Copy and paste I guess...

It's about a gun used in the Pentagon shooting coming from a Memphis PD gun sale. Guns they confiscate.

 

[Schmoe]

Pawning it would have been a HUGE mistake if the numbers came up hot. Sure, you could explain it, but the police would then lable you as suspecious and start going through you "stuff."

 

[mechtech2]

How much do you want for it?

 

[PandaBear]

Not worth the trouble if either it come up hot or the criminal found that you sold it (rather than leaving it to the police).

 

[FusilliJerry82]

I doubt the criminal coming back for it would be a problem.

 

[daves87rs]

Originally Posted By: PandaBear
Not worth the trouble if either it come up hot or the criminal found that you sold it (rather than leaving it to the police).


This.

 

[xxch4osxx]

I doubt that.

 

[Steve S]

Originally Posted By: CharlieJ
Criminals don't just walk into a gun store and buy a gun.
Ya mean they do not obey the law?