Antique status change ?|General Discussions & Questions|Forum|Winchester Collector

  Gun collectors have talked about it for as long as I remember and nothing has happen, we are a minority. It’s not going to happen.  Hopefully we can hang on what we have, before January 1 1899 is antique under “Federal Law”. State laws are another subject. T/R

I wouldn’t hold my breath. As soon as one of our beloved overseers realized there are now scary black rifles that qualify as C&R I would put money not more restrictions rather than less. 

Just my 2 cents. 

Steve

I had asked this very question elsewhere.

Why is antique status pre 1899?  Why not just a more logical cut off, such as 1900 or 1901 (1900 being the last year of the 19th Century)?  Or, why not have antique simply be 100 years previously?  (Have a factory letter proving manufactured 17 January 1920, well, you’re good to go! ).  Or, better yet, should antique status be anything over 70 years, as a firearm over 70 years of age was an antique when the Gun Control Act of 1968 was drafted?

Even my feeble mind was smart enough to realize problems that could inherently arise.  Such as in December 2059, when the first AR 15s reach the century mark.  That quaint little antique that collects dust and fires the occasional round isn’t just so quaint anymore!

Indeed, although I personally prefer a pre 1899 firearm and have mostly collected pre 1899 firearms, as opposed to later stuff, there is always the remote possibility that could be eliminated, as Congress can act in mysterious ways.  Extremely unlikely, but, if this was to occur, there would no longer be a premium associated with antique firearms.  Indeed, some time ago there was an incident where an elderly man opened fire at the US Capitol using an antique firearm that was in his family probably since new.  Oddly, I could not find a link to this but I distinctly recall that the weapon used was an antique–I believe it was a Winchester Model 1890–because I thought that this might be the end of the pre 1899 distinction.  Fortunately, it was not.

Now, as to why pre 1899, vs any other year.  I was told that those Congress consulted (but not sure who those consulted were) determined that the Gewehr (Mauser) 1898 was decided to be a truly “modern” firearm, and all other firearms, as designed, were “antique”.  So” when this was drafted in the Gun Control Act of 1968, a secretarial error led to the cut off being on or before 31 Dec 1898.  We actually gained a year of antique status because of it as it originally was intended to be prior to the Gewehr 1898, or pre 1898.

And, so I was informed by fairly knowledgeable sources on another forum.

I personally don’t have any objection to pre 1899 being antique but I think they should re-word that to include any gun “designed ” pre 1899 or what ever year  that would make sense.  Case in point a mod. 1894 Winchester 38-55, can anyone tell Me the difference between one built Dec 31 1898 or one built Jan. 1, 1899 or 1927 or1997 or 2017. I think that would get around the problem of the A R’s etc. ever becoming “antique”