Hi there. I would Like to know if it is illegal to own US Proberty Guns? I mean the Guns that are marked "Proberty of US Government". I have seen some Guys here in Europe owning some deactived Guns. They are probably Guns captured during the Vietnam war from GIs or ARVN.

There is no law that prevents an individual or trust from owning a firearm that has a US Gov't property marking.  Prime examples are 1911 surplus pistols and revolvers.  As for NFA item's, if the weapon is in the registry and is transferable, than you can legally own it.


18Z50...

You say "here in Europe" but your information says "USA".

What laws are we talking about?

Well i am from europe. I owned before the gun law change in the European Union 2 US Property M16s. They were originals and deactived Guns (because EU law). I had to Sold them 5 years ago.

Okay, welcome to AR15.com.

Yeah, a gun being marked "Property of XXX" doesn't mean it STILL belongs to or belonged to that person.  It could be stolen property or it could be something that was sold off legally.

The guy in Europe’s guns aren’t deactivated they’re very much activated lol. But no it’s not illegal to have the Prop of US GOVT on the rifle.  There are transferable full auto M16’s out there marked like that but you have to go through the process and have $20-30k.  If you don’t want to do that you could have a lower engraved, buy a “Colt” Vietnam War reissue rifle or buy a demilled magwell off of gunbroker along with an 80% lower and send them to Braceman for rewelding but the demilled magwells are getting ridiculous in price

There are LOTS of surplus 1911's out there that are property marked.

A friend of mine owns a few  us property guns.. perfectly legal as far as compliant to our gun laws

You can buy new repro lowers marked "Property of U.S. Govt", including non-functional Auto or Burst markings:

Hi everybody
I saw three "US property M16A1s" here in Italy: one is owned by a friend of mine, a nice mint example of what was issued to US GI's, a second one was in a gun shop in Turin, and a third one was in another shop, whose gunsmith was a close friend too, and he told me the rifle belonged to Indonesia. He even found a photo of an asian family into the stock.. later on, I read on a book (most probably "Misfire" by Orkand and Duryea) that during the Vietnam War years the Colt sold 50k m16a1s to Indonesia, raising some complaints because of the lack of them in the ongoing war.
All the m16A1s I saw were "demilled", I mean the company that imported them had to modify the trigger group to eliminate the possibility of full-auto, just leaving the single shot and safe positions working. Those weapons, originally belonging to an army, should never see the Italian civilian market without these modifications. After that, the chance to restore the full auto capability is denied, because the original parts could not be put back in place.
Anyway, even if they were modified, nice weapons!!

Each Country in the EU has different laws. Most of the US marked guns where given as aid. An the Countries sold them. Some still have  the happy switch an others had the sear hole enlarged. Then you have the poor fucks that their Government made them turn in their property or have  them deactivated, twice!

An I can’t import a 601 complete upper from my cousin in Italy or anything off book in Ireland