Battle Of New Orleans Rifle

[Robert Wolfe]

I'm having a hard time viewing the museum as the bad guy for wanting their rifle back. The bad guy is clearly the person that took if from the museum and sold it.

[Majorjoel]

I have posted my personal opinions about museums in the past and this event has just added fuel to the already burning fire.

When it comes to the American longrifle, it is the collectors that have cherished it and kept it safe for future generations to come.

For the most part, museums are staged upon a whim of the times. 

I feel great remorse for the once owner and caretaker of this fine historic rifle. It would be such a blow to me, or anyone of us, and would diminish our passion and break our dreams.     

[Robert Wolfe]

I too feel very bad for the guy who had it taken from him after buying it in good faith. I hope he has some recourse with the shop that sold it to him.

[louieparker]

I think the museum was a bad guy for not caring for it in the first place.. Think about not knowing it was missing for years.  But now acting as though its their most important treasure.  Something wrong there.    Very sorry for Bob and his wife...

[Hlbly]

It is my humble opinion that this, as well as a lot of other museum “thefts”, was an inside job.

[gibster]

It would be interesting to know how long it has been since the "public" had actually seen this rifle while in the museum. Maybe on the anniversary of the battle, but who knows. I, along with a lot of others were privileged to handle this rifle and learn about it's history. The odds of being able to do that in a museum are slim to none.  I agree with others here that at least while Bob was the caretaker of this rifle, it was appreciated and studied. If not for Bob's generosity, would any of us even know that this rifle existed? Probably not.

[sqrldog]

I too wish to thank Bob for allowing so many of us to hold and look at this piece of American History. I will go out on a limb and say that if anywhere close to the estimated worth can be achieved it won't be in the musuem this time next year.  Tim

[oldtravler61]

 Personally I don't care for museums. Having loaned a few things years ago to our local one. Then when they remodeled to turn it into a theater everything was boxed up an gone.
  When people asked if they could get there stuff back...you guessed it. No such luck.
  One of my friends lost his entire civil war collection of guns an uniforms.
 My opinion is I wished this couple could have kept the gun. Because in less than a year I bet no one will ever see it again....

[wildcatter]

I was saddened to read this article, Bob and his family had devoted a lot of time to the research and  display of the rifle and history to us as collectors. I doubt that it will be presented or represented this finely ever again. Very unfortunate indeed.

Matt

[Brent English]

I first learned of this rifle reading the article in the American Rifleman.  What a great and compelling story they told.  Acquiring the gun, researching the original owner, honoring the gun and its history with a documentary copy, and then sharing that work with the collecting community in the most generous fashion imaginable.  Then to learn the recent story of its re-theft by the museum.

Here's what really gets my blood up:  Why didn't the museum look for a private solution to the theft?  Why not approach Bob and Laura, explain the situation and ask them to re-gift the rifle to the museum in exchange for the positive publicity they'd both get as well as a nice charitable tax deduction for Bob and Laura.

Instead, they involve the FBI and the collectors get their house raided like common criminals.  Yes, the museum had every right to ask for their property back, but shame on the museum for not caring for it in the first place.  Shame on them for involving the FBI and humiliating the current and worthy caretakers.

[54ball]

 Something is fishy about this.

 Let's see mmmmmm. Do you think that museum has a record of every donated trinket that it has sold or liquidated in the last century?

 Museums often sale or simply throw away donated objects. Especially items that really do not fit the theme of the museum. There is no record of theft, just disappearance. Likely a record was found from the 1891 donation and that was it. It is very possible if not probable that that rifle was legally sold off by a representative of that museum.

 Recently a Birmingham museum got in hot water over selling off donated firearms. This was an aircraft museum. The issue was not selling off the donated items. It was the fact these donated items were WWII Belt-Feds. The curator just loaded them up and sold them in the parking lot of the gun show. The reason.....to raise funds for the museum.

 There was a time not too long ago that a  Longrifles were not valued as now. It was just an old muzzleloader.
 To me the burden of proof should be on the museum. Something unaccounted for, especially for decades does not prove theft. Who knows they could have thrown it away. Kindig found the remains of a fine Kentucky in a coal scuttle next to a furnace.