12/19/20

Collectible Weapons: How to Protect Your Wealth – and Your Family – With Valuable Guns

By: Sam Jacobs | Ammo.com

Collectible Weapons: How to Protect Your Wealth – and Your Family – With Valuable Guns It’s an unusual means of investment, but one that we think will appeal to our readers on a deep level: collectible weapons.

There are a number of advantages to investing in collectible weapons that will appeal both to those who love weapons and those who keep an eye on their money. Indeed, this is a popular investment category for people who like something a little more durable than stocks, bonds, and cryptocurrency. They can also provide protection during uncertain times.

Antique weapons in particular can be an attractive means of investing – after all, like land, they’re not making any more. Like any antique investment, it helps to have an eye for the material at hand. You’ll have to be able to appraise both the current condition of the weapon and have some idea of how its value might appreciate in the future.

Old Guns Aren’t Subject to ATF Snooping

The good news is that firearms made before 1899 are not covered by federal firearms laws, though they might be regulated by your state. This also means that, even in the event that Joe Biden is installed as President and the Senate goes Democratic, that barring a sweeping change in firearms law – certainly not out of the question, but also not very likely – no background check will be required to buy or sell your antique firearms made before 1899, which are covered by a special carveout under federal firearms law.

What’s more, there are a number of weapons on a special ATF list that are not subject to the same background check laws as other firearms. This includes guns like the World War I-era US Military Colt 1911 Pistol .45. These are historically significant firearms that are at least 50 years old – but note that “50 years old” now goes up to the end of the 1960s. With sweeping firearms bans potentially coming down the pike, firearms not subject even to the old rules might well skyrocket in value as other avenues of self-defense are closed off.

The price point for entry in the antique firearms market is about $1,500, though more common and desired weapons go for about $2,500 as of this writing. Knives and swords are also purchased by people looking to invest in collectible weapons and, as far as we know, there are no plans to make sweeping restrictions on the purchase of these.

When you buy an antique firearm, it’s extremely unlikely that the value is going to go down. While it’s true that the broader trends of the weapons market change, there are some models, like the Winchester Model 1873, that never go out of style and are always sought after by people who are trying to get into the market. The condition of the weapon and its rarity always play a role in the purchase price.

From the perspective of someone who is actually planning to use the weapon as well as purchase it, you can’t really do better than the classic weapons that are so sought after by collectors.

How to Begin Purchasing Collectible Firearms

Collectible Weapons: How to Protect Your Wealth – and Your Family – With Valuable Guns You can purchase antique, collectible firearms at auctions or gun shows, as well as in private transactions. However, as with any private firearms transaction, you need to be cautious when making such a purchase for both legal and economic reasons – the buyer must always beware, but this is doubly true when dealing with private sellers.

There are two types of investors in collectible weapons, broadly speaking, known as “treasure hunters” and “connoisseurs.” Determining which you are will be helpful in terms of figuring out how to begin investing in firearms. Each fits in with a particular personality type.

Treasure hunters are the yard sale aficionados of the gun investment. Indeed, you will spend a lot of time at yard sales, estate sales, pawnshops, and little gun shops way out of the way if you’re a treasure hunter. This is because a treasure hunter is constantly on the hunt for the deals to be had. You might buy a classic Winchester for $350 and immediately flip it for $100,000, but chances are a lot better that you’re going to end up buying a lot of weapons with moderate appreciation.
Connoisseurs are the niche collectors of the gun investment world. They know a lot about a specific gun, type of gun, or gun manufacturer. For example, a connoisseur might know everything there is to know about one particular Colt revolver, and so they do nothing but purchase that particular weapon.

Which of these should you be? Honestly, the better question is “which of these are you already?” If you like going antiquing or yard saling or picking through people’s junk, you’re already a treasure hunter. If you have an affinity for a particular kind of antique weapon, you’re already a connoisseur. The issue is just figuring out how you’re going to incorporate investing in collectible weapons into your pre-existing personality type.

Much like stocks, there are a number of weapons that are simply always a good purchase because they gain value consistently, if not quickly and wildly. At the very least, they are not going to lose value – meaning that if you ever want to cash out your investment, you will get back what you paid. These weapons include but are by no means limited to:

And then, on the opposite end of the spectrum, we have weapons that are virtually always bad investments. This isn’t because the weapons are bad guns. On the contrary, you will likely look at this list and think at least once: “Hey, I own one of those and it’s a great gun!” Sure, it’s a great gun, but it’s a lousy investment because it probably lost a lot of value the second that you completed the purchase and walked it out to your car.

The two worst investments? Any kind of AR or AK build. Again, this isn’t because there’s anything wrong with either of these. It’s just that there are so many of them that there’s little chance they will become collectible at any point during your lifetime. There are occasionally spikes in prices due to fears of a ban, but they’re not solid investments.

Evaluating the Value of Collectible Weapons

Collectible Weapons: How to Protect Your Wealth – and Your Family – With Valuable Guns At some point, you will have to familiarize yourself with and get a working knowledge of the Blue Book of Gun Values. As the name would imply, this is what people use to evaluate their knowledge of weaponry in the investors’ market. Online gun marketplaces can also give you an idea of which weapons are likely to increase in value over the long and short term.

Some of the factors to look at when purchasing weapons include:

Branding: There are certain brands that are always going to be worth more than others because of their iconic status. Think Colt, Smith & Wesson, and the like. These have a cachet that is impossible to deny, a status similar to Coca-Cola or Levi’s 501s or the Chevrolet Corvette in terms of recognizability and general interest.
Nostalgia: Similar, but not identical, to this is the concept of nostalgia as it pertains to weapons. Dirty Harry’s Smith & Wesson Model 29 or the 1911 from Magnum, PI are two examples of weapons that are almost certainly going to hold, if not increase, in value over time because of their cultural recognition and the nostalgia that comes along with it.
Perception: Quality is great, but the perception of quality is even better. Glock and Benelli are two examples of brands that are largely perceived as being of exceptionally high quality. Whether or not the individual weapons live up to that reputation is less important than the fact that they are perceived as such.
Rarity: Limited edition weapons are always going to be worth more than weapons made in a totally unlimited quantity. There will always be a market for weapons that were made in extremely limited supply, regardless of how “good” the gun actually is.

One tip? Buy guns that you like. In some cases, it can take decades for a weapon’s value to increase. So if you’re not enjoying the weapon while you wait for its value to appreciate, you’re simply collecting paperweights.

Finally, for those who want to invest in weapons but aren’t interested in the weapons themselves, there’s the stock market. Gun sales were booming in the spring of 2020 and the stock market reflected this boom in prices. This is a particularly attractive option for people who like guns, and like the idea of guns, but aren’t looking to get themselves a safe full of them.

Either way, you decide to invest, one thing is for certain: the future is a bright place for people who put their money behind weapons.

12/19/20

It’s Time to Expose and Punish Traitors

By: Cliff Kincaid

Although we believe the CIA and FBI should be abolished completely, as a result of their roles in subverting the Trump presidency, America’s Survival, Inc. (ASI) has campaigned to save the NSA from congressional restrictions that would undermine its surveillance programs. This stand has not been popular in left-wing and some libertarian circles. But it is the right thing to do. It is more important than ever before.

The dramatic hacking of federal government and private networks demonstrates the threat. What many won’t concede is that these hackers, apparently originating in Russia and/or China, also have the demonstrated ability to hack into our electronic voting systems, and undoubtedly did so.

As I prove in my 2014 book, Blood on His Hands: The True Story of Edward Snowden, it is no accident that the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the rise of ISIS, and cyber-attacks from China followed Edward Snowden’s defection to Russia through China. President Obama called Snowden, a CIA and NSA contractor, a mere “hacker,” and Attorney General Eric Holder wrote to the Russians promising that Snowden wouldn’t be given the death penalty if he returned home. Snowden has remained in Russia.

When NSA analysts William Martin and Bernon Mitchell defected to Russia in 1960, President Eisenhower labeled them as traitors and former President Harry Truman said they should be shot. Investigations revealed that both young men had been members of the Communist Party and homosexual lovers.

President Trump once called for the execution of Edward Snowden as a “traitor” who had “given serious information to China and Russia.” The Snowden case looks like the NSA equivalent of Philip Agee, who defected from the CIA and became a Soviet and Cuban agent. Agee died in Havana after writing several books with the help of Cuban intelligence. Snowden wanted to embarrass the United States and help America’s adversaries.

It makes complete sense to assume that Snowden’s stolen classified data from the CIA/NSA enabled the Russians and/or the Chinese to develop the hacking tools in the SolarWinds case that is receiving so much attention these days. This firm served as a “security vendor” for government agencies, including the NSA itself, supposedly making sure their IT networks are protected against cyberattacks.

But Senator Rand Paul argues that Snowden is no traitor and wants Trump to pardon Snowden.

Senator Paul is playing into our enemies’ hands and looks foolish.

The booklet, Revolutionary Secrets: The Secret Communications of the American Revolution, is an examination of how our founders secretly communicated and deceived the enemy during the war for independence. The topic is the subject of an exhibit at the NSA Museum, which I have visited on two different occasions.

The late Adm. James A. Lyons, commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, wrote, “In all the hyperventilating over NSA’s ‘spying’ capabilities,’ it is easy to overlook how critical NSA’s intelligence-collection capabilities are to supporting our military forces. The information and monitoring of our enemies’ communications is critical to success on the battlefield. NSA intelligence is a key element of planning any military operation. It provides the necessary information to our commanders so they can retain the initiative and achieve ultimate success in any conflict.”

He asserted, “It was the NSA’s intercept information that allowed Judge Royce Lamberth to find Iran guilty in Washington’s U.S. District Court in September 2007 of the bombing of the U.S. Marine Barracks in Beirut.” It was on October 23, 1983, that Iran ordered and carried out the suicide bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon, killing 241 American military personnel. An Iranian drove the car bomb into the barracks.

I attended and covered the trial in which the evidence of the Iranian role in this bombing was presented in detail. The trial involved a case brought against Iran by attorneys Steven Perles and Thomas Fortune Fay on behalf of the families of the Marines who were killed. The trial featured a videotaped deposition of a former terrorist insider named “Mahmoud,” who described in detail how Iran ordered the terrorists to attack the U.S. Marines and French troops in Lebanon and revealed that the driver of the truck carrying the bomb was himself an Iranian. A message was intercepted from the government of Iran to its Ambassador in Syria calling for military attacks on the foreign forces in Lebanon, including the Americans.

One of the highlights of the NSA’s history is the VENONA project which exposed a massive Soviet espionage effort against the U.S. that unmasked such traitors as State Department official Alger Hiss, Department of Justice official Judith Coplon, and Department of the Treasury official Harry Dexter White.

I believe some of the documents that still remain classified regarding the John F. Kennedy assassination have to do with the evidence of a communist role in his murder that was obtained by the NSA and other intelligence agencies.

This would explain why former FBI agent Herman Bly wrote, “…I believe the heads of the FBI, CIA, and President Johnson wanted the Oswald case brought to a conclusion as fast as possible as they did not want another crisis with the Soviet Union so soon after the Cuban missile crisis.”

Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa’s book Programmed to Kill: Moscow’s Responsibility for Lee Harvey Oswald’s Assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, details the KGB’s disinformation Operation Dragon, aimed at throwing the blame on various elements in the United States for killing their own president. Over the years the Soviets have successfully confused many people about their role, blaming the CIA, the Mafia, the right-wing, Texas, oilmen, or LBJ.

Our media have not acknowledged and explained to the American people the substantial evidence that an American president was killed as a result of a communist conspiracy based in Moscow and Havana.

The problem for the communists was the anti-communism of John and Robert Kennedy – specifically their anti-Castro intentions, plans, and operations.

While we are defending the NSA against attempts to undermine its powers, its terrorist surveillance programs are in fact too broad and need to be refocused. But the fact remains that the surveillance powers need to remain in place, in order to be utilized on behalf of the American people. Instead, traitors have exploited the weaknesses in these surveillance systems and the surveillance powers have been abused.

The problem, quite clearly, is subversion from within. That is why we are demanding that top officials in the federal government, including the president and members of Congress, go through a process to get a security clearance. Former FBI agent Max Noel told me the Bureau used to investigate candidates for federal employment — but not federal office — by analyzing Character, Associates, Reputation, and Loyalty to the United States. The first letters in those words make up the acronym CARL.

Noel said Barack Hussein Obama could not have been elected president if he had been subjected to the CARL test. But members of Congress also evade the security clearance process. A blatant example of this is Rep. Eric Swalwell, a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and the subject of allegations that he had a romantic relationship with a suspected Chinese spy.

Swalwell’s website boasts that “The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence is charged with oversight of the United States intelligence community, which includes the intelligence-related activities of 17 elements of the U.S. Government, and the Military Intelligence Program.”

Despite the controversy, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi won’t remove Swalwell from the committee.

The cost of the American intelligence establishment has skyrocketed to $60 billion a year. What are we getting for our money?

We will never get a handle on security violations in the U.S. Government until we order all of our top officials to undergo the security clearance process and demonstrate their loyalty to the United States.

It is clear that Swalwell would fail such a test, and so would China Joe Biden. This makes it imperative that Trump stay in office as our foreign and domestic enemies are held accountable for subverting the recent presidential election.