The Annoyed Man wrote:
Years ago my wife's beloved uncle Forrest passed away. Forrest always had a liking for me, not just because I treated his favorite niece right, unlike her first husband, but because my middle name is Forrest and he felt a certain connection.
When he passed I was surprised to learn that I was in his will a couple of times, I got first pick of his very well maintained collection of tools and a couple of other items. But most of all was the choice between his 1st series Colt .22LR autoloader, or the Dryse 9mm Kurz (.380ACP) semi-auto he took off a German officer during the war. I, much to my continuing chagrin, chose the Dryse, my brother in law got the .22.
Being in NY State at the time, and not having a pistol permit, I had my gunsmith pick the gun up, for a fee, and store it, for a fee, while I went through the process of applying for a NY pistol permit. The permit got "bench vetoed" (a common ploy in NY where, if the judge can't think of any reason to deny, he just moves your app to the bottom of the pile) and sat for a couple of years, and then that spouse passed away and I moved to IL, where I could own a handgun with just a FOID. I called my old gunsmith and it turned out that he had gone out of business partly because the feds had been harassing him, and sold off his entire inventory including the Dryse. Research showed that the Dryse was probably worth around $50.00 although he did not have a record of how much he sold it for, all of that paperwork having been passed to BATF per regulation, so he sent me the $50.00.
I didn't know at the time, but my brother in law would never had been eligible for a NY pistol permit due to a criminal record, and I have no idea what happened to the .22, which would have been worth far more than the Dryse.
