If you’re in the army can you bring a weapon back from a tour?

10 comments

1. I don’t think you can, no. Especially if it’s a kind of weapon that isn’t legal to own for civilian use.

   The *how* of someone acquiring an enemy weapon and being allowed to keep it aside, in the states you *usually* have to register a weapon and it has to be the kind of weapon legally allowed to be owned, and it’s unlikely that a weapon you took from an enemy meets that criteria, unless it’s like a handgun or something.

2. No, but during ww2 soldiers did do shit like that. My granddad had a jar of pickled ears as well.

3. If you can smuggle it, sure.

   But that’s also very illegal and will get you fucked all the way to Sunday back to Monday if you get caught.

   With very, very, very ***niche*** exceptions, no. You can’t bring home war trophies like that anymore.

4. You used to be able to back in WWI, WWII, and to lesser extent Korea, depending on the circumstances. Some soldiers were able to make it home with fully functioning Thompsons and Grease Guns during WWII, others got home with a rifle and/or handgun and others were forced to relinquish those types of souvenirs. WWI and WWII especially was kind of a free-for-all with nothing resembling a uniform system for regulating what could and could not be sent home.

   Some inspection officials didn’t care, for those that did, some could be made to easily look the other way as long as soldiers were willing to “share” some of the items they wanted to bring/send home, especially if said inspection official had not seen combat and thus not had the opportunity to collect souvenirs themselves. Other inspection officials were more strict.

   Collecting and sending home souvenirs ended during the Vietnam War. Sending home captured firearms went from a legal/gray area to something that could be legitimately described as smuggling. Even sending home captured helmets or other harmless memorabilia can be difficult depending on the circumstances in today’s armed forces.

   To sum up, bringing home a Mauser or an Arisaka from WWII was legal and extremely common during WWII. Bringing home an AKM or whatever from Afghanistan or Iraq is massively illegal in both military and civilian laws.

5. I doubt you’re allowed to. Though I’m sure it has happened. There are even stories of soldiers sneaking Opium (poppies grow better in Afganistan than anywhere else on earth) before the army cracked down on it. Though I haven’t found a credible source for that.

   The military actually has pretty strict rules about firearms. They generally stay locked up unless someone has a reason to be out with one. It’s also a common criticism of our Police, from the military – that the Police are given much more leeway to choose when to escalate to lethal force, soldiers have to follow a much more strict ROE. Police are encouraged to jump to lethal force before trying safer alternatives. See that 14 year old they just burned to death with flashbangs.

6. The military is pretty strict about that these days. It was a lot more acceptable around WW2.

7. The whole thing can be confusing. As a general rule, you cannot bring “war materials” back from war. The exact specifics of is a jurisdictional mess. Some of prohibited by law, some by official policy, some by general order, etc, etc. The one thing that’s *not* unambiguous is weapons. You ***cannot*** send back weapons and other munitions obtained from battle.

   Uniform pieces, flags, etc is a bit more of a grey area. However, even that sits uncomfortably with me because it can require you to approach an enemy and quite literally rip what they’re wearing off of them. I personally don’t like the idea of doing that as I feel the a dead body should be respected in all cases. Unless it was rightfully traded, which did happen, then I would say don’t do it.

   There is a very narrow exception though. When I was in Afghanistan you could mail antique firearms manufactured in country pre-1898. I don’t personally know anyone who did because of the hoops you had to jump through.

8. Not anymore. It’s technically possible, but so much paperwork it’s not worth the hassle.

9. Personally no. Unless you smuggle it. Units do though.

   Platoon my brother led had an AK they captured from an enemy combatant from an Afghanistan tour. It had to be made non-functional. AK safety lever was welded up, bolt removed, and chamber/barrel filled with cement.

   As a battery commander in desert storm, my dad did the paperwork and arranged logistics to bring back a pair of Iraqi howitzers his unit captured to the states to the base he was stationed at.

   War trophies have been a thing for many thousands of years and still are.

10. There have been people that have tried bringing back pistols and AK-47s but you’re not supposed to. You’d probably be breaking some serious federal laws doing so.