In 2015, Washington County officials seized an Italian Breda Model 30 machine gun during a criminal investigation.
Now, the World War II-era weapon is headed to the Minnesota Military & Veterans Museum at Camp Ripley in Little Falls. The Washington County Board on Tuesday approved the transfer.
The machine gun, which belonged to the Italian Army, is inoperable – the action and breech were welded closed prior to confiscation, said Laura Perkins, a spokeswoman for the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.
The machine gun is contraband and cannot be legally owned by a civilian as it was not registered with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Perkins said. The criminal case that caused the seizure has concluded, and the gun was forfeited, she said.
Sheriff’s Office officials registered it with the ATF under government-ownership provisions, enabling it to be transferred to the museum, she said.
Props to Washington County for not demanding the destruction of this museum piece.
