It's really easy for us to make a lot of dissenting statements, when the firearms don't belong to us.
I fully agree, it's an absolute waste.
The thing is, if the Executor happens to be uninterested in firearms, doesn't need the money or appreciate their historical presence????
Then, if the deceased was a member of a certain branch of the Legion, and the firearms will serve as both a memorial and a representative piece of arms issued during service, I can see them being donated to the Legion.
Likely, the people in charge at that Legion have zero understanding of the law and are quite willing to display the memorial firearms but only if they've been dewatted, in a similar manner to what some museums require.
I've seen this happen before and was present at our local Legion when it was decided that a wall hangar was going to be sent away for dewatting.
The particular rifle was a lovely Longbranch, issued but clean with all match numbers, bayo.
I made them a fair offer on the rifle and it was decided that if I was going to offer so much money, for what they all thought was a $25 rifle, they should look into what it was worth on the market.
They all had too much to drink that evening and decided to put it up for auction.
You had to be there to believe the made-up BS and blarney when it came to legally selling the rifle.
Only about half of the people there even realized you needed a firearms license to purchase it and then some off the wall comment was made by a drunk, claiming "It's an ANTIQUE, so no one needs a license to own it" Must have been listening to Mad Max?
Finally, the President of the branch, a very astute lady, decided they should talk about it when they were all sober.
Took them about six months to make up their minds on what to do with it and they decided to offer it to me at about twice what it was worth at the time.
I declined of course, and they ended up selling it to one of their members for what I offered them.
I have no idea if the member had a license and don't care, but this is what happens in such situations.
The executor may have been directed by the will to donate the rifles to the Legion branch, and very likely they wouldn't accept them unless they were dewatted. The cost of building and maintaining legal display cases for the items, as well as insurance and obtaining a license or permit for the branch would likely be prohibitive.
