“What do I do with these guns?” Kay Stedman asked herself after her husband, Cress, passed away in 2018. She wanted to honor his wish for his firearms collection to go to the NRA and support the Second Amendment, but she wasn’t sure how to do it.
Fortunately, Clifford Burgess, coordinator for the NRA Firearms For Freedom program, could help.
Through this program, families can make tax-deductible gifts, including both financial gifts and donations of firearms, art, books and trophies. Permanent endowments are another option. Donations help the NRA fight to preserve the Second Amendment.
Burgess looked for someone who could go to the Stedmans personally—in this case, it was Al Hammond, NRA southern regional director of field staff. Hammond had been friends with Cress Stedman since 2004 and knew there was a particular gun he had wanted to go to the NRA National Firearms Museum: a beautifully engraved, custom-made Ferlach side-by-side shotgun. With it was a letter explaining the gun was purchased from the executor of Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s estate.
Could the Ferlach go to the NRA museum? Not without a better link between it and MacArthur.
So, Burgess, Hammond, Doug Wicklund (museum senior curator) and Bryan Myers (who manages the Firearms For Freedom auctions) searched for evidence. Their research established a link between the gun and MacArthur, so it was sent to the NRA museum.
Mrs. Stedman received a tax deduction for the gun’s appraised value, and her husband’s collection helped support the NRA’s work. Best of all, the gun he particularly wanted in the NRA museum is safely housed there.
“Cress loved the NRA—he was a die-hard, in fact—so donating this unique MacArthur shotgun to the museum for others to enjoy is one of the best ways we could hope to honor him,” she said.
If you’d like to learn more about how to secure a firearms legacy, visit nrafff.com or contact Clifford Burgess directly: [email protected] or toll-free 855-4NRA-FFF (467-2333).
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