You always hear about gun sales in the US, but you never hear about what happens to the guns at the end of their lifecycle. I assume guns wear out eventually, and I assume you can’t just chuck them in the garbage when they do. What happens to them?
Depends.
Some are broken down for parts. Some get broken down and recycled. Some get used as a display piece and end up being inherited.
But, yeah, you can just chuck them in the trash. You aren’t supposed to, but it isn’t like an unloaded and busted up gun is dangerous. If you dump a bunch and the atf gets wind of it, expect some uncomfortable time spent explaining yourself. But a single gun? Nobody will even know unless they go looking through trash. But the atf does have guidelines for destroying firearms, and you can always turn them in to police or the atf and they’ll get the job done.
Right now, I have a shotgun that hasn’t worked in maybe sixty years. No parts available because it’s just that old and nobody makes them. I’d have to have someone make the parts it needs. But, it was my great, great grandfather’s, so I just keep it clean and protected.
But, I picked up some firearms a few years back from a lady that wanted to get rid of her deceased husband’s collection fast and for cash. One of them was not only in horrible shape, unsafe to fire, but it was illegal. Broke it down, recycled what could be, sold the few parts that were usable, then trashed the rest.
Truth is, most guns are going to last a couple of generations since the moving parts can be replaced for anything that’s popular enough. Like the 1911, as a perfect example. Some of the originals are out there, still in shape and safe to use because you only need some of the parts replaced as they wear out; the main body of the gun isn’t going to just fail in normal usage. Tens of thousands of rounds through some of them.
So the only time a gun wears out is when you can’t replace what breaks, or what breaks is the parts that would essentially mean you’re buying a new gun rather than repairing an old one.
There’s guns from the 1800s still being used out there. Not as many as there used to be because they’re fairly valuable, but still. Same with stuff even older, though the older they are the less likely they are to every be fired again, no matter what condition they’re in.
My cousin has an old garand my grandfather gave him that he still shoots weekly, and it was carried in action. That thing is damn near a century old, and has been all over the world. I’ve got an old mauser rifle from the same era that’s in great shape, if not exactly ideal since it was sporterized.
If you were asking because you needed to dispose of a damaged firearm, I’d say you should check your local laws first, and then hand them over to whatever state, province, or equivalent for your country’s law enforcement is. Mainly to cover your ass. But in the normal course of things, if you render it unrepairable, nobody is going to care what you do with what’s left
I picked up some firearms a few years back from a lady that wanted to get rid of her deceased husband’s collection fast and for cash. One of them was not only in horrible shape, unsafe to fire, but it was illegal. Broke it down, recycled what could be, sold the few parts that were usable, then trashed the rest.
How’d her husband die? Gunshot wound?.. 😅
Sounds like you got rid of the murder weapon for her 😅 (j/k)
Worked briefly in the waste management industry. Guns in the garbage were rare, but a problem. Policy was to call the local police to wherever they were found and turn them over. Police would take perfunctory statements from facility staff and review camera footage to verify someone hadn’t dumped it and claimed it “found”, then take the gun.
The real problem is we weren’t supposed to touch it until police showed up, so the garbage just had to kind of sit there waiting for them.
I enjoyed reading this. Thank you
This guy guns
They… get maintained (or not). All parts are serviceable, so it can be completely rebuilt in most cases.
They get “lost” in boating accidents.
It’s crazy how many guns are at the bottom of every lake and river.
My father in law has guns from 1800s that still function. I’m not a gun person at all but I am into my father in law liking me because I love his daughter and she loves his will lol. We’ve gone to the range to shoot them and they’re being left to me eventually in almost certain. I appreciate that something that old is still kicking around and will be mine out of some sense of love or whatever but I’ll prolly just sell them and use the money for my daughter’s college or whatever but I guess the point of this useless paragraph is they can last many lifetimes if properly cared for. He’s not a big gun guy either but they were passed down to him and are “collectors items” I guess.
Many pre WWII guns that were broken or unwanted were scrapped in metal drives to support the war effort.
In modern times there are several ways they can get used.
- some will get cannibalized for parts by gunsmiths
- some get used for artwork.
- many are scrapped after gun buyback programs
- some are lost in trash or bodies of water both on purpose or accidentally
Everyone’s telling you why “It doesn’t happen”. They’re not objectively wrong in their answers of how resilient firearms can be, but they’re also not answering the question.
The ultimate answer for a lot is “broken down and recycled”. How do they get there, though?
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A lot come through “buyback” programs, where guns can be turned over to authorities for some nominal reward. These tend to harvest a lot of inoperable weapons, frequently from people who had one but didn’t know how to otherwise get rid of them.
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In states with more lax firearm laws, scrap dealers may accept repairable weapons as scrap metal. In more stringent states, they may only accept them if you’ve destroy the weapon as /u/SolOrion@sh.itjust.works outlined in the ATF poster.
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Even in states with strict firearm laws, guns can frequently be turned over to authorities without charges. (CAUTION: Read guides on how to do this, and consult your local laws and policies before treating this as truth. Better yet, consult a legal professional.)
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In some rare cases, a gun dealer may accept the gun, strip it of useful spare parts, and sell them independently.
At this point, the gun will be deliberately damaged to render it nonfunctional (if it isn’t already) and sent to a scrap metal handler. Metal components will be melted down and reused. Plastic or wood components may be recycled or thrown away.
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I assume guns wear out eventually,
They don’t.
I assume you can’t just chuck them in the garbage when they do.
You can slice them in pieces across the action, and dump them in the trash. You can surrender them to police; police will collect them in a barrel, and deliver it to a steel mill for recycling.
It depends? I’ve honestly never heard of a firearm being irreparably broken- there’s not usually a ton of different parts involved like with a car so repairs are drastically similar.
The amount of use and abuse a gun would need to be broken in some kind of semi-permanent way would be a lot. Generally if you’ve got the money for that amount of ammo, you’re going to have the money to have your gun- which you clearly like- repaired.
If you really just want to get rid of it, though, from my understanding you can take it to any police station (probably call ahead showing up with a gun randomly is a bad idea) and they’ll dispose of it for you.
If you’re asking about the mechanics of it, all you need to legally ‘destroy’ a firearm is an oxy/acetylene torch. The ATF has a nice little guide.
They don’t wear out really. Most what happens is a new barrel, which takes a ridiculous amount of rounds, and on most guns is easily replaceable.
Hell, I have an old 1911 from my grandfather’s father, has had a lot of rounds through it, and I still take it to the range. Works just fine.
They likely either get pawned, repaired, or shredded/smashed.
Who shreds/smashes them? Is there a service for that?
pretty much any police department will accept firearms you want to get rid of them (and they’re legal.) Many will do a gun buy back program with “no questions asked”.
They then either destroy them or sell them off at an auction. Usually, they destroy them.
My gf once was at a police office in Sweden for filing a report. Near the entrance, there was a big solid metal container and the sign “no grenades” on it. It was to deposit guns without any questions asked.
Handed down or sold, most likely
Right, but then what? Like cars do the same thing, but they end up in scrapyards. What’s the gun equivalent?
Same. Some are broken down and functioning parts are sold off. Guns bought in buyback programs get melted down.
They’re all still out there somewhere. We need to stop making them
All of them? Is there even a theoretical pipeline for how they’re meant to be disposed of?
