There is no reason I can think of except that something about the pistol or its history may be suspect. It's like hiding your license plate number when you drive your car. Why would anyone do it? The obvious reason is that the license plate is stolen, or had been used in a crime. What leverage/power could be held over someone who revealed the serial number of his legitimately owned gun, by whom, and for what purpose? None that I could think of...with this possible exception:
The only remote possibility I've ever heard of is that, because a Luger's serial number is not necessarily one-of-a-kind, someone's pistol may become controversial because its serial number matches that of another Luger that is on record as contraband in some way. Legitimate pistols usually have paperwork of some sort--bill of sale, transfer record, registration, etc. which, when produced, may help deal with this potential situation, which is extremely rare to begin with. It would be like finding a matching number original part; doing so, though very, very infrequent, would still be possible.
The risk of something happening like this is so small that I'd personally never worry about it. Though it's probably a big hassle if it occurs, one's chances of its happening to them are insignificant; I would NEVER lose a moments sleep worrying about it.
There are those, however, who worry about everything, regardless of real probability. I'm sure you know some of them. This is unreasonable. Focusing concern on only the possibility, to the exclusion of rationally considering the probability, is something some people just do. This attitude is impervious to factual information and logic. As in the Monty Python routine "Flying Sheep", "Sheep are very dim: once they get an idear into their 'eads, there's no shiftin' it." Regardless of a notion's accuracy, we tend to hold on to the ones we already have, defending them to the death whether they are "real", or make any sense at all.
This is MHO, of course; I'm open to the possibility of being incorrect or misinformed, and await different/better info. In the case another well-reasoned answer or credible information arrives some day, all I need to do is change my mind.
David Parker
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