just a question out of boredom.

[Travis8128]

if you are deployed in iraq and say "find" a cool little souviner like an ak-47 would you be able to take that home?

or is it illegal to take anything from the other side home?

[armygunsmith]

It's my understanding that "war trophies" are unauthorized for individuals. But, parts might be ok as long as someone wouldn't try to bring back a receiver.

[Travis8128]

hmm interesting.

im asking this because i was at a friends house and his dad opened up the gun safe allowing us to see his amazing collection. like i mean he has a freaking armory in that thing.

but yeah he showed me a sniper rifle his grandpa snagged off a jap in WW2.

still has the blood smears from the guy he "got" it from.

and i was just wondering if that kind of stuff is still alright now a days.

[Blue]

Back during WW2 that stuff was common. Now adays, it's not allowed. My uncle in laws dad has a French rifle that he snagged up in Vietnam.

[nick]

Times have changed. Back after WWII they saw no problem with civilians owning guns. These days you're searched when go home from deployment t make sure you don't take any such offending objects home with you.

[TheBundo]

I think it was different in past wars (talking Korea (maybe) and before that for sure). My dad was in WW2 (he was Canadian at the time, and spent all 6 years in the war (1939-1945), and they packed ships by the thousands with millions of men when it ended to bring them home.

They brought back every sort of thing. I held, as a 7th grader, gold faucets that supposedly came from Hitler's Eagle's Nest. My Social Studies teacher's uncle had supposedly torn them from the wall when they raided and ransacked the place.

My dad was on a raid of an old barn, and found 2 gunny sacks full of German Marks from The Weimar Republic, which was Germany between the end of WW1 and Hitler's rise to power. They had hyper-inflation, and it literally took a wheelbarrow full of money to get a loaf of bread (there are photos, that really happened, folks, and it could happen here the way they are sdetting up the dollar to be de-valued). My dad tried to drag the 2 bags around with him, but that was impossible, so he picked a broad selection of denominations and mailed them home. When he got back home, he gave some away, and kept 10 of the bills for himself. I used to take them to Show and Tell. The largest was for 100,000,000 marks. It's wasn't and still isn't worth much (as a collector's items, worthless as currency) because they printed so many. They were already worthless after Hitler took over.

[professorhard]

In the early days of the Iraq war you could sneak it but those times are long gone and you can't even take home parts now