I would want to see the contract. Otherwise, it might be just someone telling you about some unwritten policy that the person or an elected boss politician wishes were binding.

Further, I would want to know how you are bound to follow a contract you did not sign.

Finally, I would want it explained to me how a completed gift to a retiring deputy somehow reverts back to department or county property if the deputy, its lawful owner, sells it or trades it legally to someone else. And, what if the deputy gifts it to his son? Or dies, leaving it to his widow? Are these people now suddenly in the possession of stolen property or contraband subject to confiscation?

I mean, do these thugs have even a rudimentary knowledge of basic concepts of law that any person would know?

It seems to me that if the deputy signed something agreeing not to sell it, the "SO" has remedies against the retired deputy perhaps, but certainly not against a bona fide purchaser who had no knowledge of a purported agreement that the bona fide purchaser did not sign. Or an unknowing dealer who took it in on trade.

And, that bit about how the thug came and said you will take back one gun, and sell the guy a new model selected by the SO - that is really rich!

I suspect what is really going on here is that someone let the guns go, and when it was discovered by the politicians that county marked guns were on the streets, and thinking of possible bad press for the politician, people were told to get the gun or guns back or heads will roll.

In the end, the buyer with the week-long NICS background check got a good deal - a brand new gun instead of used one marked with the logo of the county reeve and his band of merries. Good show for him.

Of course, I may come across as cynical or suspicious, but the whole scene stinks, if you will pardon the movie quote, "like a whore house at low tide."