The 1942 Panzer IV Ausf. F2 was an upgrade of the Ausf. F, fitted with the KwK 40 L/43 anti-tank gun to counter Soviet T-34 and KV tanks. Picture taken by Mark Pellegrini, at the United States Army Ordnance Museum (Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD) – 6/12/2007
The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Seattle, WA, billionaire Paul Allen, who recently gave a half-million dollars to the anti-gun Initiative 594 gun control campaign in the Evergreen State, is locked in a legal battle over possession of a WWII German Panzer tank.
According to the story, Allen paid $2.5 million for the tank two months ago, to a California group called the Collings Foundation, which allegedly has declined to turn it over. There is some dispute whether the tank was actually for sale in the first place. One report said the Collings Foundation apparently offered to or tried to return the money.
Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms
Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, which opposes the initiative and is backing a rival measure, weighed in with tongue somewhat in cheek, but with an eye for irony.
“While Paul Allen is eager to get his hands on a genuine weapon of war,” Gottlieb observed, “he is all-too-willing to support a measure that throws obstacles in the way of law-abiding citizens who may just want to borrow or buy a firearm from a friend or in-law. How silly is that?”
According to the story, Allen’s Vulcan Warbirds filed a lawsuit in California’s San Mateo County Superior Court. The allegation is that the Collings Foundation is not only clinging to the tank, but also to Allen’s $2.5 million. Allen’s attorneys even got a restraining order to prevent the tank from being moved from its present location.
The report said Allen is “an avid collector of historical military planes and other equipment.” Included in that “other” category is a Soviet SCUD missile that Allen reportedly bought for $349,000 and an allegedly “rusty and inoperable Cold War-era M55 self-propelled Howitzer.”
Ultimately, if Allen prevails, the Panzer will wind up at a military equipment display at the Flying Heritage Collection aviation museum in Everett.
“This is simply incredible,” Gottlieb said. “This elitist Seattle billionaire thinks it is just fine to make it more inconvenient for average citizens to buy, sell or loan a rifle, shotgun or handgun, but he wants to buy a German tank with a 75mm cannon! We looked through I-594, which Allen supports, and discovered why he’s probably hot to purchase that Panzer. I-594 has a tank-sized loophole.
“Tanks appear to be exempt under the gun control measure because they’re not specifically mentioned anywhere in those 18 pages,” he explained. “So, Allen wouldn’t have to go through a background check. But who needs a tank to go duck hunting?
“Evidently,” Gottlieb concluded, “the difference between billionaires and the rest of us is the size of the guns they want to own.”
