Yesterday afternoon my mother gave me one of my late grandmother's old handguns that my mom had stored in a box in the attic for years (grandma passed away 24 years ago). I'm the "gun guy" in my family (my parents never owned guns), so any old guns that my uncles don't grab are eventually passed down to me (have my grandpa's old .22 rifle, my other grandpa's old .410 shotgun, etc).
It's a quirky little .22LR snub-nose revolver with a very strange cylinder rod that has to be unscrewed and removed from the frame in order to open the cylinder (not ideal for fast reloads
). From the construction quality, obviously it's a cheap Saturday Night Special - probably something my grandpa picked up just so grandma would have "something to protect herself". But it's in decent shape, doesn't look to have been fired much. No major rust and overall very clean. The gun is stamped "MOD. RG 14 CAL. .22 LR RG IND. MIAMI, FLA"
So here's where it gets weird. Quick Google search confirmed this was a cheap SNS, imported from Röhm GmbH of Sontheim/Brenz, Germany. It also revealed that this was the same brand and model that John Hinckley used to shoot President Reagan, James Brady, Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy, and DC police officer Thomas Delahanty.
OK, interesting piece of historical trivia - like owning a Mannlicher-Carcano rifle. This RG 14 is the same make/model of gun that sent Sarah Brady into her decades-long tizzy.
But then I remembered all the recent media stories about the Reagan assassination attempt and looked up the date. According to wikipedia, he was shot at 2:27 pm on March 30, 1981.
My mother gave me this gun at approximately 2:30 pm yesterday, March 30, 2011 ... nearly 30 years to the minute after Reagan was shot with an identical gun.
Now that's a little eery ...
mine just has basic caliche-colored plastic grips without basic logo stamped same color into the plastic. 
. Yep, they were cheap and very poorly made, but for a person down on their luck or barely eeeking out a living, they could provide a modicom of protection. Much, much better quality (and I use the term loosely) than the famous "ring og fire" products (Lorcin, Davis, Ravin, Jiminez, etc). Since mine still works, it's worth more to me than the $10-15 it might sell or trade for (at least if dealing with a knowledgeable person) just to leave in my office desk drawer loaded with those evil "exploding .22 caliber hollow points" (heard that phrase used by one of the city boy pin heads on Fox News the other night).