...Assuming proof is the law, then the answer is simple: the dealer in question gets turned in. If I'm a knowledgeable gun buyer...
Strange Larry. I thought your proof proof house was protecting folks folks without the knowledge.
My example had nothing to do with criminal activity. What if the old neighbor widow or uncle bob just wants to give you a gun that's been in the closet for years and no one knows anything about. They say if you don't want it they're going to offer it to so and so down the street.
You can tell it's a Parker and that it just might clean up pretty well or it has sentimental value to you. You spot 3 1/4" chambers and offer the informed opinion that it should be proofed before it's transferred to anyone else. You offer to help.
You find out later that it was given away to someone else. Whew, now 'assuming proof is the law', is the answer still so simple to you. If you try to give a prized shotgun to an heir, should they take your word that it's safe and original. Do you have the right to pass it on to the next person, knowing it was not in your possession for the first sixty years of its existence.
I noticed a link by D. Hause in another thread that there is indeed at least one American proof house. Would you and others please send a few guns in each and pass along your experiences and show your sincerity.
You start off right on target in the above post, Craig. One purpose of proof is indeed to protect those who "don't know". So I inform the individual with the altered gun that it's possibly dangerous, and while he can keep it and shoot it if he wants to, I'd strongly advise against it. And, most importantly, he can't give it, sell it, whatever, to anyone else. Why, after all, would any honest, upright individual want to give or sell such a gun to someone else? The individual to whom he gives or sells the gun may well not be aware of the potential danger unless he tells them. That gun is essentially a wall-hanger unless or until it passes proof.
As far as "American proofhouses" go . . . one more time: American gunmakers already proof their guns. Have done so for a very long time. And we also have a cooperative professional organization (SAAMI) to which all American arms and ammo makers belong. But they do not proof guns. As for individual gunsmiths . . . yes, they could fire proof loads in a gun (assuming they could either get their hands on or make those loads, as did Bell and Armbrust in some of their destruction tests). But even a knowledgeable gunsmith lacks the equipment and the experience to do what a proofhouse does.
As for "sending guns in", some Americans do indeed send their guns to England for proofing. I don't know whether anyone here has done so, but I have correspondence dating back a few years from someone who then participated here. He reported that he sent an Elsie with Damascus barrels to England for proof. (The powers that be at his gun club wouldn't let him shoot it otherwise.) Maybe others here have done the same thing. But if you don't have a gun that's been altered significantly, it's unnecessary. If you have one of those, Craig, then maybe you should consider doing it.
