And how would the owner do that, short of accumulating thousands of parts from dozens of companies and laboriously comparing them, one at a time, to the part that needs replaced? In a way, that would solve the repair problem, since it would take the rest of Doubleyolk's lifetime and he would not have time to worry about shooting the gun.
Lanrezac, in countries that have proof laws, the law applies to imported arms as well unless they have been proved in a country recognized as having an equivalent proof test. IIRC, a gun proved in Belgium can be sold in Germany with no further proof, but a gun imported from the U.S. to Germany has to be proved under German law, since the U.S. has no proof law.
Some U.S. companies do submit their guns to proof, but not all. Remington, for example, proves its guns and uses the mark "REP" in an oval. The letters stand for Remington English Proof, and Remington claims that it is the equivalent of the English proof for the caliber/gauge. But the "REP" is not recognized in England, since it has no force of national law, so Remington guns imported into the U.K. have to be proved and marked in accordance with English law.
FWIW, those Lend Lease guns brought back from England were proved when they were sold out of government stores in the 1950's and 1960's, not when they went to England, since guns sold to or made for H.M. Forces are not subject to commercial proof; the military has its own proof system and proof/acceptance marks. As I understand it, most of the L-L guns were simply warehoused at the time of receipt; only those actually being issued were proved and marked with the broad arrow and the crossed pennants proof.
Jim
