Isn't it still brand new if it was sold by S&W to an FFL and never sold by that FFL? Also known as "new-old-stock"?
The minute it goes to an individual and into a safe, it becomes "Mint, like new unfired" but is a considered a used gun.
Two cases in point.
I bought a M64 from Vances. It was an overrun from the last Brinks order of revolvers and had sat in the warehouse for three years. It had never been out of the box nor registered to anyone. Brand new gun. A 2007 unit sold to me as "new" in 2010.
Conversely, I bought a 5906 from Aimhi that had never been fired but was sold internally to the CCW instructor for demonstration purposes in his classroom. Never fired just handled by students to teach loading and unloading of snap caps in the magazine. This gun was sold as "used".
Kind of like a car. Once it's titled, it's used - even if it's trailered from the dealer into a museum and the odometer reads zero. If it came from Detroit to the dealer and hasn't been titled it's new.
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+ NEW, likened to newly forged iron]
