I mean if you don’t want it I’ll take it . Don’t destroy it , I’ll even compensate you.

OP, I'm not sure if you are serious about the destruction or not, I do remember the thread on the BHP.

If you do decide you don't want it, I ask that you please contact me, I believe that we live near each other and I would very much like to have a peace of history like that.

My grandfather Fought in the 5th Armored division in France in 1944, he and his men fought against multiple SS divisions near Champenard, France in late August, he narrowly escaped death there and was badly wounded in his hip by an 8mm round. The wound disabled him for life and contributed to his death many years later. I have absolutely no love for the Nazis, or what they did, but that is a piece of history there that should be taken care of.

He brought a pistol home with him (not a P08), but due to the way things went there is zero chance that I'll ever end up with it. Please don't destroy that one.

I sent you an IM, OP.

The nickel appears to be in good shape, a lot of them are pretty rough after awhile.

I wouldn’t destroy the Luger. I apologize if I missed it but how did you aquire either? It seems like you just ‘found’ a luger in your safe?

Me personally, I would rather have someone else enjoy it. I think you could get 800-900 on gunbroker and let someone else be happy.

An American service member most likely brought that home as a war trophy. That’s how I think positively of things.

Do you get off on destroying old guns or something?  I genuinely don’t understand why any rational being would ever consider that.

Then you post that folks questioning your judgment lead you to destroy the previous gun!?  Is your skin made of rice paper and your brains mad of mush?

What actually justification for destroying one can you give that doesn’t involve a tantrum?

Why would you want to destroy any piece no matter what it may be made up of. That is part of the progression of the decline of the German war machine. If you had a early war HP and the one you destroyed it would show the progression of the decline in the war.

I have a s/42 DWM P08 the toggle is beautifully blued, The rest of the gun is finished in a black type of paint chipped here and there looks like shit. There are German proof marks on it and English proof marks and  Israeli  proof marks on it. What stories it could tell?
It most likely is not worth a lot but it is a piece of history.

I also have a very nice AC42 P38 and a late war CVQ  (broken die theory) which shows the decline of standards thru the war

What a weird thread.

What about it was a headache?

I have nothing constructive or CoC compliant to say other than nice gun OP.

Why did you buy it then in the first place?

Rumors regarding the quality of WWII firearms are overwhelmingly false, many people will tell you that Type 99 Arisakas can explode too, but this is misinformation.

The fit and finish often loses a lot, but functionality rarely suffers.

As for the owning Nazi war trophies being strange, there's nothing more 'Murica than a civilian now owning the weapons of a tyrannical enemy.

Are you mentally handicapped?

The perspective is you make dumb ass decisions. Send that to someone who appreciates it before you destroy something else of historical value.

I feel dumb even replying to this. This has to be a troll thread. Now I'm gonna go to bed pissed again... shit's ridiculous.

WTF is this? Are you some AI experiment by David Brock and Share Blue? It's the same response as all the others.

You want clarity, here's your "clarity". I'll PM you my FFL info and you can send it to me. Thanks. Freakin loony tunes up in here tonight.

They wouldn't have sabotaged a gun in such a way that it would last 75 years, it would have failed very quickly, and that's assuming that they sabotaged anything at all. I'm betting that's another story with no place in reality.

Sabotage by a worker would have undoubtedly led to discovery and a bad time for the workers in question.

Might as well stop and tear down some statues on the way....

destroyed?

I would put it in your car and have them both crushed.

That's my assessment of the situation.

I have wanted a Luger since childhood, but haven't been able to find a cheap enough one at the right time, PLEASE don't destroy one (Or any other guns)!

It's not like you've filled your house with swastikas or adopeted the ideology, its just a gun and possible war trophy. Lots of people own guns from commie countries that don't have the best past either (myslef included) I wouldn't worry about it at all and keep the thing.

Seriously, if you just want it gone I'll gladly pay something and you can send it here to Oklahoma!

I say you destroy it in a slow and methodical manner.  Video tape the entire destruction, and then post on the Luger Forums.  It’s your gun, do whatever your want as long as it doesn’t endanger another’s life or liberty.

This is by far one of the fucking strangest threads I've seen on this sight. OP don't destroy history that is just screwed up. Keep it or sell it.

I'm sure if you posted pics of any of your guns in other online forums, you would have hordes of liberals demanding you destroy those murder weapons. NOTHING you own / no decision you ever make will go without criticism.  I have always wanted a Nazi marked weapon, and a luger is one of my grail guns. that's a very nice weapon, and please do not destroy it. sell it / give it to someone who will appreciate it.

Do not destroy anything.

Please contact one of us so we can preserve history if you feel the need to.

I would honestly suggest that you talk to a mental health professional before sorting out the P-08.

wow...

seriously?

I’m having a hard time believing this isn’t a troll thread.

I say destroy the Luger and post pics, and if you have any pics of the destroyed Hi-Power, please post them as well.

I am having a had time understanding your logic. You believe a rumor that guns from that era could be sabotaged or poor quality but the High Power was neither so you don’t think it could be what it was so you destroy it? Thats like finding an antique British car that doesn’t leak oil and taking it to the scrap yard?

Yes it’s your gun but please realize it could have been sold to someone who appreciates it or has the skills to make sure it isn’t sabotaged or dangerous and would treat it with the respect it deserves. At the very least it could be sold for parts to make other Lugers complete.

You sound more like a liberal attention seeking troll who also cuts his AR-15s in half so they won’t commit mass shootings while locked in the safe.

As far as technical advice. I would load some nice soft shooting 9mm and happily shoot it with a smile on my face. If you don’t know how to reload I am sure you could source some low power 9mm ammo.

Oh BTW my grandfather had a Luger, a couple other hand guns and a Sturmgewehr 44 that he picked up while fighting in Germany. He filled out the papers and declared them but someone stole them out of his bag while getting ready to ship out. He bought an Artillery Luger off a buddy who needed needed $50 for a poker game and stashed it in his pants till he got home. My Aunt had had dibs on that Luger since before I was born. If she ever decided to just destroy it without offering it to me, I can’t tell you the hell that would rain down.

I have nothing else to say that wouldn’t get me a ban.

I agree.

One option is to donate to a WWII museum or military museum where it will serve a good purpose in education of history. Or even a serious Historical collector. That way it can contribute to good rather than causing grief.

No, You are trying to get a rise out of people.

I think we all agree that it is strange that you believe the only options are to keep it or destroy it. Not only are you considering it but you’ve already done it once to another gun.

“I’m having trouble with the idea of keeping my car because I don’t know what it’s worth/people may judge me. Should I keep it or push it off a cliff?”

I'm going to give you the benefit of a doubt and assume you are not just trolling the forum with this non sense of buying nazi era guns and then destroying them because they make you feel bad.

Regarding:

1) Nazi marked Hi Powers being sabotaged by the Belgians who made them.  Yes, that did happen.  However, they were sabotaged to fail very quickly, not last 70 years and then blow up in your face.  Any sabotaged examples have long since failed.

2) The moral question of whether Nazi gun are in some way monuments to "evil".

Let's consider this P.08 Luger.  It's a DWM Pattern 1914 Luger made in mid 1918.  It went through the last 6 months of WWI, 21 years of peace, 6 years of WWII, and then another 70 years of peace before it arrived in my hand.



It is possible that it was used by some one to execute people (Jews, Russian POWs, resistance fighters or hostages, etc).  It is also possible that it was used by an officer or NCO for it's intended self defense purpose on the battlefield, and even in that legitimate role it may have been used to kill or wound one or more American soldiers. However it's even more probable that if it was used in combat for self defense purposes it was used to kill a Russian soldier, and given that Stalin killed an estimated 40 million of his own people, and that Russian became the enemy of the west immediately after WWII, some might regard the latter as a mark in the "plus" side of the ledger.  Lugers were also captured and used by resistance fighters and they were also captured and used as extra weapons, particularly by troops who were not normally issued a hand gun.  In that regard, Lugers were used against German soldiers as well.

The odds are however that, like 90% of all service pistols that were issued, it was issued to various people in support units and never saw a day in actual combat.  Given it's condition, and statistics, the latter is much more likely.

Let's also consider this Walther P.38.  It was made in 1943 and saw the last 2 years of WWII, plus possibly some post war service by either police or military.  As noted above it may also have bene used for any of the listed purposes.



Both of these guns could have been used in the commission of a war crime, or they could have been used for legal and legitimate combat purposes, or they could have been issued to support troops and never fired in anger.   Regardless of how they were used, and regardless of fact that both weapons are iconic symbols of nazi Germany - it's not possible to trace the history of either one to a sufficient degree to determine how they were used.

In that sense, these pistols are representative of all of the uses for the P.08 and P.38 - good and evil, - rom shots fired in the pre-cold war to genocide.   But the important thing to remember that regardless of how these pistols were used, there was a person pulling the trigger, and any resulting good or evil that came from that was the responsibility of the  shooter, not the firearm itself.   They are inanimate objects that don't have freewill, political affiliation or a sense of right or wrong.  They are simply tools with no more good or evil than the person using them.

As noted above both these pistols are iconic and are associated with nazi Germany and seeing one will sooner or late evoke thoughts on their possible past use.   To me, that makes these very important weapons - pieces of history that ensure that we do not forget the evil that men, (men, not guns) are capable of perpetrating on their fellow man.

Less than 75 years have passed since the end of a genocide that killed over 11 million people, including over 6 million Jews and 1.1 million children, yet only 54% of the people on the planet of ever heard of the holocaust and  even in the US, only 77% are aware of it and only 55% feel that it has been accurately portrayed in history (i.e. 22 % are holocaust deniers).   When some one tells me how important it is that we destroy nazi memorabilia or former Nazi arms should be destroyed, it makes me question their motives.  Those who ignore the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it, and by scrubbing the slate clean and removing all traces of the people who started  WWII, we set the state for a repetition of history.

Destroying a pistol from this era is tantamount to saying that WWII "never happened", and worse that "it could never happen again".

3) There are some very anti-gun aspects to this idea of destroying a gun because it is evil.

It ignores the fact that crimes are perpetrated by people not objects and it naively suggests that if we just get rid of the guns, society will somehow magically become less violent. Instead, it will just leave law abiding citizens less able to defend themselves. And if a law abiding citizen can use a gun to save a life, I don't give two shits whether it is a P.08 Luger or not.   It's not the gun, it's the person using it and how they choose to use it.