My year is made!

[davidkachel]

I'll spare you the details because the story is long and sad.
My closest life-long friend died two years ago this coming Feb 27th.
Before he died he went through hell and lost everything he had over an agonizing 2 year period. I say he was tortured to death because that's what it amounted to.
Among his sacrifices was his gun collection. The discussions here on the forum concerning "guns we regret selling" made me think about a couple of guns in particular that he had had since we were boys and that he cherished. I decided today to call a mutual close friend who might know where they went so that I could possibly make an effort to buy them back.
To my great surprise and joy I learned today that the guns in question were never sold. Our mutual friend had spirited them out of the house, knowing what they meant and fearing my friend might use one of them to end his misery. It turns out he suffered quite a tongue lashing when our friend discovered what he had done, but he nonetheless steadfastly refused to return them or allow them to be sold. They are safe and sound and in the most trusted hands. Of course, I'd rather have them myself, but I don't care (no, I mean I REALLY don't care). As long as they're still "in the family".

I just had to share my joy with guys I knew would understand, so that's the reason for posting this. I am thrilled!

[Dwight Gruber]

David,

Very sorry for the long and sad part, and equally glad that at least part of it has turned out well. One does understand.

--Dwight

[minigun]

Just wondering what the collection consisted of?

[davidkachel]

Thanks for your kindness Dwight.

minigun,
The only guns that were of importance were two rifles his father gave him when he was very young. Neither was particularly valuable or of significant interest as firearms; a single-shot Winchester .22 and a 30-30 lever action Winchester. They would have been equally important to me if they had been two rocks (in fact, there was a rock of sorts, also safeguarded, but that's another story). They are guns I normally wouldn't give a hoot about, except that they were his and he cherished them because they were gifts from his father and therefore they were important to me.
He had lots of other guns, original civil war muskets and WWI & II weapons also. He hated to part with them and I wish I could have saved them for him, but the ones that really mattered, the ones he would have wanted saved by any and all means are now safe and in trusted hands.
I wish some of you guys could have known him, and it's possible some of you did. He went to lots of gun shows and historical events. To give you an idea, at age 12 (this is not a typo!) he was widely considered to be one of the five top experts in the world on the American civil war. He could lecture on any aspect of 19th & 20th century history from memory and keep a room full of teenagers (the toughest audience) sufficiently spellbound that they would follow him out of the room, asking him not to stop, when he got tired of talking. He probably helped more people in his lifetime (some of whom were genuinely undeserving and ungrateful) than all of us put together. In the end, it was his generosity and trusting nature that got him killed. His funeral was SRO and one of the people responsible for his demise had the gall to show up. That person will never know how close he came to dying that day. The guy who now has the guns that are the subject of this thread stopped another of our friends who was working his way to the back of the room to kill him.
Part of me wishes he'd made it. To quote John Wayne: "some people just need killing".