Can you keep/buy your service sidearm?
 

All,

Buddy of mine is telling me that his dad is no longer in the service, but still has his Beretta M9. Not just a Beretta 92, his service M9. Might have bought it when he left the service. I'd never heard anything like this, whats the deal? All true, or is this guy just blowing smoke? Perhaps the story is distorted as it was passed along, and he simply owns a 92 thats "just like" the one he carried?

Thanks!

No...

I think there have been periods of time when you were able to but not anymore. (at least, not while I was in)

You can buy Beretta M9s, though. Beretta made some production models marked M9 instead of 92FS a while back...

Service members find themselves in possession of things that they aren't supposed to be after they leave the service all the time.

When that happens, you're in possession of stolen government property, however.

in a word NO you cannot.

I was going to say yes, under certain circumstances, but then I realized we wern't talking about LEO.
Dad got to keep his sidearm when he retired from the SO's.

ohhh I wish I could keep my -107...not really a sidearm though.

Screw the m9...Papa Oscar Sierra.

Gottit. Sounds like the story is fishy one way or another.

Thanks!

Ummm, hypothetical. Lets say this really was stolen gov't property. What would happen if he tried to sell it? Would the DROS process catch it? Would you get a nice visit from the MP's? BATFE? Maybe this is a question better off moved to the "Legal" forum.

Seriously, just a hypothetical. Far as I know, whatever it is its not for sale.

Hypothetically, if he tried to sell it, nothing would happen and the new owner would become the registered owner of the said hypothetical M9.

If the equipment was written off as a loss by the military originally, there might not even be a record of it existing as a functional firearm anymore.



Hypothetically.

I *love* hypothetically.

NO.

Military side: NO

LE side: I was allowed to purchase my issued S&W M59 when I left the PD

Was he CID? Officer? There ARE a few ways...

Like when they fall off the truck. ;)

It used to be possible, but not anymore. Back in mid-90's one could buy his service weapon (some of them, they wouldn't sell an M249) when honorably discharged. They closed that thing back in the 90's though.

+1

My uncle has his old trusty GI .45 from his Vietnam days.

Even if they did, I wouldn't want the M9 anyways, carried that BB gun POS for 15 months.

Being a combat medic, (above) I certainly have to respect your opinion!

Im afraid this isnt fully true either. I know they didnt do it as far back as 1986, before that maybe, since I wasnt in the military before that. When a person gets out of the military, the weapon assigned to them is just thrown back into the TO&E and reassigned to the next guy coming into the unit. There are no provisions for "selling" a .mil firearm to its user who is discharged. As a military armorer, I can tell you this is pretty much standard practice. Trust me when I say, most .mil firearms you wouldnt want anyways. Theyve been shot all to hell, abused, thrown around, mishandled, and are bacially in all around poor condition astetically.

No you cant buy your service firearm. I cleaned out my garage a few years back and found a bunch of old cammo gear packs kevlar boots hats and assorted crap. 99% of it went in the trash it wasnt really useable Mold and jsut old age etc. Most of the stuff was jsut boxed up and thrown in the rafters where it stood till I went and cleaned the stuff out. its been up there for at least 10 years. I kept one globe and anchor from a old uniform.

I can tell you that since 1974 you cannot buy your issued military weapon. If you lose your weapon you will pay for it, but you don't get to keep it if it is found later.

There are people I have met that brought a .45 or similar weapon home from a war, but these guys "found" the weapon on the battlefield, and it belonged to somebody else that wasn't around anymore, and they had not signed for it. It was written off the books as a combat loss, and at the time nobody really cared.

There is a program for retiring Generals to purchase their pistol. Info is here http://tri.army.mil/LC/cs/csl/genera...ol_program.htm. There was no program for enlisted personnel while i was in. Even if someone "lost" their weapon,the investigation by CID would really suck(They're thorough). Not to mention that everyone gets locked down until the weapon is found or written off.

I need to get my buddy to get one of those. They're pretty.

That would be like buying a old rental car. A bad idea. You know that things been beat to hell just get a new one.

does your buddy's daddy have stars on his shoulders?