Your guns will live

American Handgunner, July-August, 2009 by Alex Hamilton

Yeah, I know, we all think our guns are going to go with us when we croak, but I hate to break the bad news to you--they ain't. If you die before your spouse and you have not planned for your toy's afterlife they're going to go to firearms hell. They end up in the hands of the wonderful people of the State, predatory lawyers or are simply pilfered off by thieves. When you go to eternity, chances are your old decrypted life's love (that's your woman for most of you) will be left in home-care, a nursing home, the care of like-minded females without a man, intensive care or anything else you can dream up. Please give yourself a moment of realism to think about it. Leaving the person you have loved and cared for with a pile of debt, guns, tools and stuff with which she more than likely has no idea how to deal with is just flat-out cruel.

Consider this scenario. You are 82 years old, which places you around seven years over the life expectancy of an American male. Your sweetheart has been putting up with you for over 50 years and is 78 years old, which is right at the life expectancy of an American female. You have told her all your life those fire-sticks are worth a fortune when you die and can be sold for a nice chunk of cash to help her through the end of her days. She has really never had an interest in your guns and has devoted her time to putting up with you and raising children.

Now you die on her, and she's left alone with bad health and a safe full of guns she does not have a clue how to turn into the much-needed cash you told her about. I have been confronted with this problem--as have most gunsmiths by the wives of men for whom we modified and built guns over the last 40 years. We are a recurring name in their husband's Rolodex and one he mentioned off and on for many years, so the widow, in great need of help, calls.