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Shooting Illustrated | St. Louis Police Sells Thompson Submachine Guns
The St Louis Police Dept is selling twenty four Colt Model 1921, one Model 1928 and two Model M1A1 Thompsons. A dealer has offered $22,000.00 for each Thompson and the St Louis Police are going to sell them
Nice to see these weapons become available to collectors
Yes, that's nice. Our RCMP had a couple consecutively serial guns that are in Hill's book...they put one in the museum in Regina and destroyed the other. There are men in this country that are allowed to buy and sell FA... I'd like to have seen the rack of Thompsons in the PD before they moved though. That would be nostalgia at it's best.
Are they really transferables?
The SLPD also have a couple of Lewis guns.
This seems like a much more sensible approach for dealing with surplus law enforcement/military weapons rather than just cutting them up into little pieces for scrap, as seems to be the approach in the U.K.. The surplus weapons do still have a monetary value, as is shown by the article, and it seems like an intelligent course of action to sell them to reputable dealers and thus offset the cost of the replacement weapons that the Police department sources. In this instance historic weapons have been saved for posterity and the U.S. tax payer has been saved a significant sum of money required for the purchase of new weapons.
It is said that the policy here is to cut up/destroy surplus weapons rather than sell them to reputable dealers who could then legally deactivate them, inline with the current regulations, and then legally sell them on to collectors. It does seem a shame that historic and interesting weapons are not being saved here, even if only for deactivation, because the U.K. taxpayer loses out as a result.
Isn't the UN partially behind this? I read an article years ago about a UN directive that all members should destroy surplus military arms rather than sell on the open market.
They're "pre" guns aren't they? They should be transferable.Quote:
Originally Posted by Vincent
The U.S. is currently a member of the U.N., isn't it? At least they host the headquarters. The U.K. is probably the only country on the planet that enforces the directive to the full.
I don't know if the UN directive covers Law Enforcement firearms or is specifically aimed at Military surplus F10?Quote:
Originally Posted by Flying10uk
They'll go to the highest Dealer bidder one would suppose...........I saw one being sold on the Pawn Shop programme and fired on the range. A remarkable weapon well ahead of its time
One can imagine the press having a field day if the U.K. Police started selling off firearms to the highest bidder............although it may help their funding crisis that they keep harping on about. :lol:
There's no chance these days F10. I believe the last police firearms released in any number were the Enforcer's.
Only half of those ended up being sold, the others half got the chop.
Prior to that, I think they sold off their Webleys in the 1970's.
Nothing will get sold off now, it's either gifted to another country, or chopped up .... Chopped up is the easier option by far, as it requires far less paper work.
So what? The U.N. should have NO say in what we do inside our own country. And as far as hosting them, I think the Swiss should step up.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flying10uk
I heard that there was a very rare Thompson Model 1927 semi auto among the St Louis Police Department Thompson collection too.
Yes, so the story went. I'd like to have a hands on of that one myself...for a few undisturbed minutes...Quote:
Originally Posted by RCS
Just come and visit Jim and I'll put a good old Savage M1A1 in your hands. I traded it out of the Edgefield PD, repaired it and it's perfect. It was on the Iwo Jima invasion and mailed home in pieces by the Marine who carried it, then given to the Police Chief here during the amnesty in 1968 and subsequently registered on a Form 4 as a curio and relic. I'd love to own a 1928 with British or Commonwealth ownership marks but probably never will unless a big ship comes in for me!!
I had one of those...marked as M1 not M1A1. It had the floating firing pin too...Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian Dick
Had one of those for 22 years...Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian Dick
Yep, the M1 was just a bit earlier. Mine is U.S. Property marked and still sports it's original Dulite blue finish with character.
---------- Post added at 07:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:13 PM ----------
I see your 1928 was a Savage also. Very nice.
It was. I shot it lots when I was posted to the east coast. If I'd had it in the prairies '85 to '89 I'd have likely shot it loose...as was I tried.Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian Dick