Found gun...what would you do?

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Dashunde said:
...So you'd just walk right past a $20 bill laying on the ground?
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Well, there's no reasonable way to identify the owner of a small amount of currency. When I've found a bill, I've given it to charity.

It's not mine, and I have no way to find out who it does belong to; so it might just as well be put to a good purpose.
 
Actually, I'm dismayed at the number of folks who apparently want to rationalize taking ownership of something they didn't earn, work for, pay for or receive as an intended gift.
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To me, that really isn't the issue. Why does the police department (possibly even an officer) get to take ownership of something didn't earn, work for, pay for or receive as an intended gift? Some of these outfits even have a policy in which the property is destroyed, which is a complete waste.

IMO, if the owner can't be found, finders keepers ought to be the rule.

"LE sure cant be caught actioning them off like its a drug-bust Camero.
About the time someone uses a police auction 9mm in a crime it'll really hit the fan."

Of course they can. Evidence weapons are auctioned off all the time.
 
Frank Ettin said:
Actually, I'm dismayed at the number of folks who apparently want to rationalize taking ownership of something they didn't earn, work for, pay for or receive as an intended gift. It's a sort of viewpoint that really doesn't do humans proud.
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As am I. It's disgusting.

Rationalizing it with "Why should I let the cops keep it?" is almost a kindergarten argument too. "Two wrongs don't make a right!" I'm pretty sure we've all heard that saying.

Keeping a gun you found without seeking it's owner is no different than a wallet or a bag of money.

Anyone who would suggest it should be embarrassed by their own lack of principles, frankly.
 
Anyone who would suggest it should be embarrassed by their own lack of principles, frankly.
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There are entire nations of people who do not set the same standard or acknowledge your principles. It would be very unkind of me to accuse you of being unaware of this as I am pretty sure a studied man does in fact know this is true.

I don't take what isn't mine, and when I find something that isn't mine I make a real effort to find the owner when I can. But that is my personal standard and I know many many decent people who just don't think this way and the concept to them is foreign and it is unfair to unilaterally lay the burden of your moral standards upon other people who may have never been raised to believe what you believe. People who by every other standard are truly terrific, kind, and considerate yet would certainly fail to measure up to your principles in this one regard.

As for the legal issues involved, I'll take a stab at addressing this in a more specific manner. Try reading this first link for the common law applications of lost and mislaid property.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/lost_property

Then I will drop another link with a listing of 20 States that have enacted laws that to one degree or another effect the disposition of lost/found property. The information is listed in an odd place but I believe is actually valid.

http://www.animallaw.info/articles/ovuslostdogpropertystatutes.htm
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And to highlight by example, Arizona has no laws or statutes that require an individual to take any special actions beyond those that should be expected under common law. If you find that gun in Arizona it's your's unless or until the true owner comes asking for it and you don't have to turn it into the cops.

That being said, if it was stolen and the law finds out they will take it. If they have any reason to think you stole it they will charge you. If it was used in a crime they also may charge you. So when it comes to guns you better be thinking.
 
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I haven't seen it mentioned bu in addition to taking a pic of it where it was found, I would have found something to pick it up with as to leave none of my prints on it just to CMA.

Otherwise you did the right thing.
 
lcpiper said:
Anyone who would suggest it should be embarrassed by their own lack of principles, frankly.
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There are entire nations of people who do not set the same standard or acknowledge your principles....
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So what?

  1. We're here and not in some other country.

  2. That ethical standards of other cultures might be different from mine does not require that I abandon mine.

lcpiper said:
...As for the legal issues involved, I'll take a stab at addressing this in a more specific manner. Try reading this first link for the common law applications of lost and mislaid property.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/lost_property

Then I will drop another link with a listing of 20 States that have enacted laws that to one degree or another effect the disposition of lost/found property. The information is listed in an odd place but I believe is actually valid.

http://www.animallaw.info/articles/ovuslostdogpropertystatutes.htm
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...
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Of course that list doesn't identify any States in which the traditional Common Law rule was abrogated or modified by judicial decision.

lcpiper said:
...And to highlight by example, Arizona has no laws or statutes that require an individual to take any special actions beyond those that should be expected under common law...
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And of course that still doesn't address the ethical issue, nor does it address the practical considerations (e. g., the possibility that the property is identifiable as having been stolen or used in a crime).
 
lcpiper said:
...your moral standards...
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"My moral standards" are the standard upon which this nation is founded. They are the standards that are the basis of Common Law and they are the basis of the written law in most, if not all, states. I couldn't care less about other nations.

I'm ordinarily a very laid-back and non-confrontational kind of guy but I simply won't be in cases like this.

Frankly, the suggestion of keeping something that was found is illegal in most places, makes us all look bad, probably aught to be deleted and garner an official infraction or even temporary ban for any person suggesting it on the open forum.

The only reason I don't do it is because, in this instance, we have a number of other folks pointing out the the moral bankruptcy of a such a position, which makes us look good and leaving the posts up simply allows the persons to show their true faces to anyone who can read the posts.

Every person every where fails to measure up to their own moral standards at some point. So what? We abandon the standards and have a free for all since no one can meet the standards 100%? That's asinine.

This one shouldn't even be up for discussion. It's depressing that it's even contestable. It's flat out thievery. It's illegal in most places and it's certainly immoral and it certainly gives a good indication of anyone's moral/ethical compass who could possibly argue otherwise.
 
Keeping a gun you found without seeking it's owner is no different than a wallet or a bag of money.
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I'm not suggesting that - I'm suggesting that the finder turn the gun in, and if its unclaimed and not found to be used in a crime, it should be returned to the finder if he/she wants to keep it.
This covers the moral aspect of due diligence in attempting to locate its rightful owner.

In general, I think if something is just found laying there on the ground, and it doesn’t have numbers or some other way of locating its owner, it should be deemed fair for the keeping if the law permits.

Donate it to charity if you want, but for those of you who think that found items are not yours to keep, bear in mind that it is not yours to give away either.

lcpiper said:
There are entire nations of people who do not set the same standard or acknowledge your principles....
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Frank Ettin said:
So what?
1. We're here and not in some other country.
2. That ethical standards of other cultures might be different from mine does not require that I abandon mine.
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Frank Ettin said:
It's a sort of viewpoint that really doesn't do humans proud.
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Frank, you referenced humans, not American's specifically. The geographic bets are off.

Honestly, I think there is entirely too much self-righteousness and judgment of others in this thread.
We're not talking about stealing things, we're talking about keeping a found item (within the rule of law) after effort has been made to find its owner and its free of crime.
There is absolutely nothing morally bankrupt about that.
 
Dashunde said:
...Honestly, I think there is entirely too much self-righteousness and judgment of others in this thread....
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If there's too much self-righteousness and judgment on one side of this thread, there's too much greed, rapaciousness and covetousness on the other.
 
Sounds like a lot of you guys take the unimportant things in life a little to seriously.......

I lost a 20 dollar bill last week, but found one today. As is the way of life. We aren't talking about anything big here.

As for the moral high ground of 'this is what the country was founded on'. I think some on here need to brush up on their history. This country was founded on STEALING land and then treason, among other unspeakable truths.
 
This country was founded on STEALING land and then treason, among other unspeakable truths.
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...and if cows had wings, we'd have barbecue in coach.

The topic at hand is how to handle a found gun, not general US history.
 
Dashunde said:
We're not talking about stealing things, we're talking about keeping a found item (within the rule of law) after effort has been made to find its owner and its free of crime.
There is absolutely nothing morally bankrupt about that.
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No we're not. At least one person in this thread (example) has stated that they would not turn it in and would simply keep it and the implication or at least justifying it without outright saying they'd do it is certainly there with others.

That's not "after effort" to find the owner. That's a crime. In NY, punishable by up to 6 months in jail. It doesn't matter if it's a gun or a wallet or a vacuum cleaner.

After a reasonable effort has been made and no owner can be found, fine, keep it if that's what the law says. A reasonable effort would mean, AT THE LEAST, contacting LE. Much more reasonable would leaving flyers at local gun shops and placing an ad in the "Lost and Found" section of your local papers.

Isn't that what we'd want done for ourselves? How do we know someone wasn't out shooting and got a call that their child was in a terrible accident and forgot in their haste that the AR was on the roof of the car? 10,000,000 scenarios possible. Only one right answer. Try to find the owner by contacting LE.
 
timelinex said:
...This country was founded on STEALING land and then treason, among other unspeakable truths...
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What a fine example of:
Frank Ettin said:
...folks who apparently want to rationalize taking ownership of something they didn't earn, work for, pay for or receive as an intended gift....
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You did the right thing... BUT..

I was stopped on my bike for a traffic warrant back in the 70's and taken to the police station.

The chief of police asked me where I got the Por Le Merite (blue max) I had on my Levi cut off jacket, and I told him from my grandfather.

When I bailed out and got my property back, the blue max was missing from my jacket.
I guess the chief felt that he needed it more than me.
I never got it back.

To bad for honest LE,that there are some bad ones out there, that hurts them all.
 
Grant you just made a statement that we all agree on. This other some do one way, others the other way. Maybe there's no wrong / right way. We just do things different and lime to argue our way is the Best. All in all we're probably still gonna believe the way we believe.
 
Brien, it sounds like you are somewhat outraged by my post.

Please go back and re-read it. I would call your attention to this specific excerpt.

I don't take what isn't mine, and when I find something that isn't mine I make a real effort to find the owner when I can. But that is my personal standard
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See if it in any way mitigates your outrage.
 
I found $600 in a street gutter once. I called the police indicated where I found it and gave them my contact info. They requested I turn it over to them. I told them to get bent. No one claimed it so I kept it.

I'd of done the same with a gun. Unless they found it was used in a crime or someone came forward claiming it I would not have handed it over to them. They don't deserve profits from auctioning it any more than I do.
 
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