You find a gun. Do you A) Call the cops B) Start shooting C) Find who it belongs to and give it back

[OldBroad44]

Lots of depends. If I had been the person to find it in a diaper bag I would have put it back in the bag and then returned it to the owner with a good finger waggle about security of said pow pow. If I was walking along a deer trail 5 miles from a road and found a hunting rifle (or a Winchester model 73) leaning up against a Juniper tree I would most likely after trying to find out its owner via the serial number. Should that not prove possible I would keep it.

If I found a rifle leaning against a tree 5 miles from road on a deer trail I would consider it an emergency and immediately start halooing and using the whistle that is part of my everyday carry gear and searching for a hunter who suffered a heart attack while trying to take a sh1t. He shouldn't be far from the rifle. If I couldn't find him in a few minutes I'd call Benton County Search and Rescue and tell them the serial number and situation. Maybe hunter suffered a stroke and wandered off. Or a woods naive person got turned around and lost. Hopefully Linn and Benton County Sherriffs would send out a telephone alert and soon the available citizenry closest to the site would gather to search the area. I wouldn't handle the rifle, as it could be used to give the scent to a SAR dog. I figure nobody leaves a rifle in the woods unless something is really wrong.

 

[coop44]

Strip it for parts, toss the frame into a mailbox.

 

[albin25]

remote location;
If it looked clean and functional, I'd wrap it in an old towel then put it in a plastic bag, replace it were I found it and check on it every few days (to give whoever lost it a chance to get it back). If it was still there after a couple of weeks I'd take it to the local police station... I don't want to bring a gun home that I have no idea of it's provenance... I just don't need the hassle/worry.
If it's a rusted piece of junk, or a Jennings or a Hi-Point... I'd toss it in the river

populated area;
If it was somewhere it would be readily found by kids, or other idiots... I'd just turn it in.
(again, I don't need the worry/hassle).
If it's a rusted piece of junk or a Jennings or a Hi-Point... I'd toss it in the river

Liberal crazy place;
I'd turn it in at a "buyback event" and make a couple bucks, "no questions asked".
If it's a rusted piece of junk or a Jennings or a Hi-Point... I'd still take to a buyback



If I knew of a nearby anti-gun Politician;
I'd hide it in their garage and notify the cops! (from a phone at his constituency office)
Fingers crossed that it was used in a crime.


The one time I found a gun (12guage), it was in the bottom of a canoe, along with a partially eaten sandwich, an open bag of Doritos, and partially consumed six-pack of Bud Lite. Well, I dragged the canoe further on shore and waited around for about 20 minutes. Soon a pudgy, sweaty, scratched up, out of breath guy came crashing through the brush from upstream and asked if I had seen his canoe float by. He said he desperately had to take a leak but when he was ashore the canoe floated off.
I gave him a good stern talking to... I mean really?... Bud Lite???

 

[titsonritz]

I'd tell an adult.

 

[No_Regerts]

No BS story. We had some officers who were moonlighting somewhere else and that agency required the use of a particular gun that we don't use. I had several situations where I was pretty sure an officer called in sick to go work at the other place, putting me short and resulting in double pay for the crappy employee.

One day I found their moonlight gun in one of our department vehicles. I detail stripped it down to the last roll pin. Even drifted out the sights. Handed it all back in a gallon ziplock bag.

 

[CLT65]

Strip it for parts, toss the frame into a mailbox.

Same as if you found someone's wallet?

 

[solv3nt]

No BS story. We had some officers who were moonlighting somewhere else and that agency required the use of a particular gun that we don't use. I had several situations where I was pretty sure an officer called in sick to go work at the other place, putting me short and resulting in double pay for the crappy employee.

One day I found their moonlight gun in one of our department vehicles. I detail stripped it down to the last roll pin. Even drifted out the sights. Handed it all back in a gallon ziplock bag.

 

[DunRanull]

Same as if you found someone's wallet?

No, not the same. My wife has misplaced her purse several times, and always it has been returned- intact. We live in a smallish town and have a lot of active and retired military/criminal justice folks. Most are honest in my experience.

 

[Andy54Hawken]

About 15 years ago while I was grouse hunting....

I found a Smith and Wesson model 34 along the logging road I was walking up.
I picked it up and put it in my game bag.

As I near the dead end of the road...I see a hunter cleaning a grouse....
I call out to him...so as not to startle him...the dude seemed very focused on the cleaning of the grouse.

As I walk towards him...I see a empty holster on his belt...one of those cheap nylon ones.
It had split along the seam...and he didn't know he lost his revolver.
Gave him the S&W back...and suggested a better made holster.

Not gonna lie...I did like that revolver...and was tempted to keep it...
But , better to give it back.
Andy

 

[DunRanull]

About 15 years ago while I was grouse hunting....

I found a Smith and Wesson model 34 along the logging road I was walking up.
I picked it up and put it in my game bag.

As I near the dead end of the road...I see a hunter cleaning a grouse....
I call out to him...so as not to startle him...the dude seemed very focused on the cleaning of the grouse.

As I walk towards him...I see a empty holster on his belt...one of those cheap nylon ones.
It had split along the seam...and he didn't know he lost his revolver.
Gave him the S&W back...and suggested a better made holster.

Not gonna lie...I did like that revolver...and was tempted to keep it...
But , better to give it back.
Andy

lt would have been VERY tempting to keep it, the kit guns are pretty nice ol revolvers.... "Better to give it back"- What else could an honorable person do?

 

[OldBroad44]

No, not the same. My wife has misplaced her purse several times, and always it has been returned- intact. We live in a smallish town and have a lot of active and retired military/criminal justice folks. Most are honest in my experience.

Corvallis, population about 50,000. About half associated with OSU. About 1981. The local newspaper, the Gazette Times did an experiment. They created 20 fake lost wallets, each with a little money and fake ID but with good phone numbers, and spread them all over Corvallis. 19 of the 20 were returned promptly with contents and money intact. The 20th was returned without the money. In fact, the phone they set up to receive the lost wallet calls was ringing off the wall with found wallet reports before they even finished distributing the wallets.

 

[CLT65]

No, not the same. My wife has misplaced her purse several times, and always it has been returned- intact. We live in a smallish town and have a lot of active and retired military/criminal justice folks. Most are honest in my experience.

I was joking of course, hence the green smiley. I assumed the other poster was too. I would no sooner strip a lost/stolen gun of its parts than I would a wallet of its contents. If you found a lost or stolen car, would it be OK to pull it into your garage and strip it down for parts?

Corvallis, population about 50,000. About half associated with OSU. About 1981. The local newspaper, the Gazette Times did an experiment. They created 20 fake lost wallets, each with a little money and fake ID but with good phone numbers, and spread them all over Corvallis. 19 of the 20 were returned promptly with contents and money intact. The 20th was returned without the money. In fact, the phone they set up to receive the lost wallet calls was ringing off the wall with found wallet reports before they even finished distributing the wallets.

That's pretty impressive. I wonder what the percentages would be like if they did that now? I still think that most people are pretty honest, depending on the circumstances.

Back to guns- I remember going to look at a gun for sale back in the 90's, when you could find them advertised for sale in the local trader paper, and go to the person's house and buy it. I got the sense right away that the guy was a little off, then at some point in the conversation he told me that he didn't deal in stolen guns, because every one that he bought to sell, he would go find a phone booth and call the police to check the serial number, and if it turned out to be stolen, he'd strip it for parts and toss the frame in a mailbox. I walked away from that one fast. For one, I'm pretty sure you can't call the police anonymously and get any kind of information. Secondly, I wouldn't do business with someone who would knowingly keep stolen property.

 

[Flopsweat]

It is unclear why the presence of a gun did not warrant a lockdown

IYKYK

 

[Juniper9mm]

I grab it and bolt!

 

[Certaindeaf]

No BS story. We had some officers who were moonlighting somewhere else and that agency required the use of a particular gun that we don't use. I had several situations where I was pretty sure an officer called in sick to go work at the other place, putting me short and resulting in double pay for the crappy employee.

One day I found their moonlight gun in one of our department vehicles. I detail stripped it down to the last roll pin. Even drifted out the sights. Handed it all back in a gallon ziplock bag.

I spotted a buddies empty patrol rig locked but with a window down about 4" one night. Well, it so happened that I had just discovered an adolescent possum so I stuffed it through the window crack.

 

[Flopsweat]

I spotted a buddies empty patrol rig locked but with a window down about 4" one night. Well, it so happened that I had just discovered an adolescent possum so I stuffed it through the window crack.

The stink of possum crap does leave upholstery but reluctantly.

 

[Certaindeaf]

The stink of possum crap does leave upholstery but reluctantly.

I never heard, found out, nor enquired what came of it. I knew it was a high risk move with nebulous deniability because everyone knows possums favorite snack is balls and screaming just motivates them.
It was hijinks city.

 

[solv3nt]

The stink of possum crap does leave upholstery but reluctantly.

I'm not sure I want to know how you know this.

 

[OldBroad44]

That's pretty impressive. I wonder what the percentages would be like if they did that now? I still think that most people are pretty honest, depending on the circumstances.

I suspect the lost wallet experiment results would be pretty similar today for most of Corvallis. However the wallets only had up to $20 in them as I recall. Too little to matter much to most people. I don't know how it would turn out if it was, say, $2,000 or $20,000--enough to make a serious difference to most people.

I think most people get a little shot of joy from being able to return a wallet or lost valuable. The case I was proudest of was when I was sitting on my front porch in Corvallis about 6am and saw something drop out of a bicyclists back pocket and into the intersection. Turned out to be a wallet with a little money, a bunch of food stamps, and no id. I figured at that time of morning the odds were good the guy was on his way to the Beanery, in downtown Corvallis, about a mile further down Western Ave and a block or two over. So I called the Beanery. Sure enough, one of their regulars had just come in and gone through the line and discovered he had no wallet. They had given him his coffee and breakfast anyway. So they passed on my message that I had his wallet. Which he soon biked up to my place and recovered.