We got disturbing news about the rare Connecticut State Police Remington 81 that we wrote about yesterday. While the GunBroker auction that we linked to was legitimate, criminals took the pictures and description from that auction listing and listed the gun for a lower price at another sales site, Armslist. Contacted by the actual owner of the rifle, the S&S Hunt Club, Armslist promptly removed the listing and left in its place a note that it was a scam.
So, well done to Armslist, good catch by the Remington 8 community, and it looks like no one was harmed. This time.
Why do these scammers persist? Well, one reason is that law enforcement couldn’t really be bothered to track these guys down. S&S contacted ATF, but they’re unlikely to do anything — they’re working flat out just to army Mexican drug lords, and coordinating with Democratic members of Congress to nullify the 2nd Amendment. They’re much more into manufacturing than fighting crime, these days.
Local cops might be willing to fight fraud, and eager to collar a crook that the Feds consider beneath arrest by their auguste personages, but with the scammers working across state and national borders, a Federal agency would have to get interested to properly resource the case and follow the leads where they go. In the end, it’s not sexy crime, just routine crime, so it falls between the cracks.
So the lesson to you is: be careful out there. The crazed panic buying has brought a lot of stuff off the shelves as investors take profits and collectors reduce their exposure to political risk, but there are a lot of very suspicious listings on the auction sites, too. If it looks too good to be true, it probably is. It’s a real good time to deal face-to-face — in a public, busy place with surveillance cameras, if it’s a cash deal. Use your head.
Kevin was a former Special Forces weapons man (MOS 18B, before the 18 series, 11B with Skill Qualification Indicator of S). His focus was on weapons: their history, effects and employment. He started WeaponsMan.com in 2011 and operated it until he passed away in 2017. His work is being preserved here at the request of his family.