13 replies to this topic

[Cheesebeast]

Hello All,

I have an amnesty registered M1. I was wondering what this entailed back in the day. I have heard the amnesty was "announced" in post offices across the nation. If I remember correctly the period of amnesty was one month(?) Anyone know any further details about it than that?

Who in congress supported this idea?

Curiosity may have killed the cat, but I am trying to avoid that fate. Still, curious about the amnesty.

Thanks,
Cheese

[marks]

Well, I was only 5 during the amnesty so I don't know first hand but... When I was an SOT not long ago, I was contacted by a man with an amnesty registered Jap 96 he wanted to sell. We chated at some length and he said he found out about the amnesty while working at the post office. His boss handed him a bunch of things to post on the bulliten board and the amnesty registration notice was in the pile of papers. He laughed about how he stumbled onto it. IIRC, he said you had 60 days to register the guns but I'm not sure. It might have been 30. I know it was a short amount of time.

As an aside, the history of the Jap gun was amazing. It was a war bring back (of course) and found it's way into an attick (no suprise there either) when the gentleman I refered to above discovered it while doing an electrical job. That was in 1956! The family that had it didn't really want the thing around and were pleased as punch to off load it to the electrician for $5. Yes, $5 U.S. The electrician had it all these years before approaching me when he was ready to sell earlier this year. Didn't buy it because I didn't have the scratch but I was real tempted. It's in good hands now though. If some of these old pieces could tell some stories........

Sorry to get off the subject, your post reminded me of that old Jap gun.

[Cheesebeast]

That was a good amnesty story. My M1 has a tale to tell. In the late 40s a man who owned a sporting camp had some longshoreman clients during the deer season. The conversation turned to guns, and the sporting camp owner said he lusted to own a Thompson some day. A few months passed and a strange package arrived (no return address, of course) that contained a Thompson! He put it in the attic (that seems the super secret place to stash them- maybe under that old quilt of Aunty Batty?). He registered it during the amnesty.

Thanks,
Cheese

[marks]

That's a good one too Cheesebeast! Like I said, if only these older guns could talk! When looking over the Jap gun I couldn't help but wonder if I'd find sand or other dirt inside eluding towards it's life in service. One thing I do know is it was NEVER fired after coming to U.S. soil. For some reason the commander or whover allowed it here took the magazine (very expensive now days, $600 when you can find them) and the bolt return spring out of the gun to make it "inoperable". It was in pretty much mint condition other than the two missing parts.

[Cheesebeast]

I have another Amnesty story for you- I know a guy who was a kid during the war. His older brother (much older) post D-Day sent him an MP44 he took off a dead German. His brother somehow disguised it and shipped it back to him with a note that basically said; "have fun, I know you can't get ammunition for it, p.s. don't tell Mom."

The damn thing has the original manual with it.

Off for the weekend,
Cheese

[snipershot1944]

The Colt 21a I'm buying has a bit of anmesty history to it too. It was owned by a Virginia State Trooper from the mid 1940's up till he passed on in the mid 1990's. Then to his son (from whom I'm buying it once the paperwork clears.) The Trooper used it as a private backup weapon, and it was not registered. The FBI knew that he had the Thompson, and vowed to catch him with it and confiscate it. He vowed that he would "throw it in the river" before he would surrender it. When the FBI got too close, he "gave" it to a local town police department and retreived it from them in 1968 when he registered it. It has been in the same family for 60+ years, and I think that I will be the third owner since 1921.

Sniper

[philasteen]

The amnesty was not really a voluntary gift from congress. It was necessary due to the Supreme Court's decision in Haynes vs. US - which held portions of the National Firearms Act unconstitutional on 5th amendment grounds (self-incrimination). The amnesty was created to allow persons holding unregistered weapons to register them without fear of self-incrimination.

Edited to add: My M1A1 was amnesty registered by a well known Class 2 manufacturer. It belonged to a marine in the pacific who gave it the to Class 2's son. The son registered it but later ran into legal trouble and transferred it to his father. I got it in 2002.

Edited by philasteen, 22 October 2004 - 04:42 PM.

[full auto 45]

My amnesty story is on my M1 also.
Gun was made in 1943, went to war as most did. Returned from the war safe and sound. Went to Mt Rainer to be reworked. It has the MR stamp on the buttstock. Around 1946, it was sold to the B&O Railroad Police. They used it and kept it until the chief of the B&O Police retired in 1965 and went to West Virginia to be the new police chief there. He took the gun with him as he was the guy who bought it for the B&O. I guess he liked it. Then in 1968 he heard about the Amnesty and registered it.It stayed with the PD in WV until they contacted me last year and I bought it. I have a letter from them stating all this info with the names and dates. Kinda kool to have that.

[Tex]

Those are some great stories guys!

I know of a couple of old timers that were into guns as far back as the '50s.
They had been buying all kinds of stuff for years before the amnesty in '68.
One of these gentlemen registered at least 200 guns during that 30 day period. I'm sure I remember him telling us that ATF (or was it the ATT at the time?) even sent in an agent to help him with them. What guns he didn't register or "culled out" ended up being dumped into an interstate overpass column the day they poured the concrete.
The other gentleman also, has one of the finest collections of MGs I've ever had the privilege of seeing.

[21 smoker]

Great stories for sure,...

My 28 Savage was also amnesty registered,but at the same time was dewatted as well. I never understood why the owner dewatted this peice when it didn`t cost anymore to leave it live.He must have been familar with firearms ..he was a deputy sheriff at the time in Florida...makes no sense to me...Fortunatly the rewat will only involve a barrel swap and some restoration to the front of the receiver,all the stampings should remain intact...and it has plenty of those...first production run from Savage,on Colt machinery,GEG,Brit proofed,House of Enfield,broadhead, and NAC suffix...in other words ..well travelled...like someone said `if they could only talk`...now all the talkin`will be done in 45cal.,when it comes back from PK`s...

[Bill-banger]

Really some good stories here.

I have an amnesty registered M1 Carbine(yes, M-1, not overstamped M-2) that I bought from a dealer in Las Vegas some of you may be familiar with, Ike Ziros. It came with the original paperwork, a Korean War bringback. The owner turned it into a sporter with a really expensive-looking stock with a high hunting-type comb. It has a Cutts compensator on the muzzle and all the metal has been re-blued with a chrome bolt. When I take it to the range to shoot, everyone things I'm sighting in my hunting rifle until I rip off a mag!

[TSMGguy]

My amnesty registered MP40 was captured at Normandy and lugged all around Europe until the owner (a field artillery major) brought the gun home in his personal effects after the war ended. He brought back just one magazine and the original sling. The gun lay in the bottom of a foot locker, untouched, until the '68 amnesty when he registered it. After retiring from his civilian career, the owner moved to Las Vegas where he passed away in 1994. The gun came into a dealer's hands and onto the market. I jumped a plane, rented a car, and went out to see the gun. A quick inspection showed it to be a matching bnz41 gun in excellent shape except for the typical handling rash from three years of active service. I paid for it on the spot ($2,500) and got the necessary forms rolling. The owner's widow's phone number was on the paperwork, and I called her for a nice chat. I said I was interested in any photos or letters concerning the gun, but she laughed and said that she had seen no such things and said that she didn't even know that the gun existed until after her husband's passing! It's a great 'been there, done that' gun that is a pleasure to shoot.

[SecondAmend]

REGISTRATION OF CERTAIN FIREARMS DURING NOVEMBER 1968, (Chapter 53, Internal Revenue Code), provides "This Form [Form 4467] cannot be accepted for registration of firearms except when received by Director during the time period November 2, 1968, through December 1, 1968."

[Cheesebeast]

Awesome response, fellas.

Thanks for the details on the Amnesty.

Cheese