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For Sale: One M-16 Rifle, 'Not Many Scratches'
By DAN BARRY
The New York Times
LAPEER, Mich. - If you've ever wanted to own an M-16 rifle, and who hasn't, now is your chance. The Sheriff's Department here in Lapeer County has put theirs up for bid, and as far as fully automatic machine guns go, she's a beauty.
"This is the real deal from the Colt factory and marked as M-16 with safe, semi and auto selector switch," reads the department's solicitation for bids. "This weapon is complete and well maintained."
And a surefire conversation starter.
But the auction is less about a proud addition to someone's private artillery than it is about Michigan's faltering economy. These are strange, tight times here, so strange and tight that it sort of makes sense for a law enforcement agency to sell off a machine gun so that it can afford to buy other guns.
"We've all been cut beyond the meat, beyond the bone," says Robert Rapson, the undersheriff.
Which is why that near-mint M-16, a member of the department longer than some sheriff's deputies have been alive, was suddenly busted from the rank of firearm to collectible.
Rapson, 55 and burly, has a voice as deep as his affection for his county, Lapeer, a farming and bedroom community of 93,000 people, with tidy towns, dozens of lakes and an economy whose link to the automotive industry is reflected in obituaries: 30 years at Buick City; 15 years with the AC Spark Plug Division. Detroit is about 60 miles to the south, Flint about 20 miles to the west.
Rapson joined the Sheriff's Department in 1974, when it had just 16 members, a fifth of today's complement. Over the years he did everything from road patrol to detective work to running the county jail - so much late-night cop work that he developed an allergy to coffee. Ask him about a ribbon of distinction on his brown uniform, and he declines to elaborate.
Back in 1975, he was dispatched to a local gun company to pick up an M-16 A-1, purchased for $500 and capable of shooting hundreds of rounds a minute. His superiors were concerned, he says, about the potential for "civil unrest."
Some deputies were fresh from Vietnam and knew how to shoot an M-16. Others, like Rapson, had to be trained. "I'll always remember how noisy it was," he says. "How hot it was, and how inaccurate it was."
Fortunately, civil rest reigned in Lapeer County through the 1970s, the 1980s, the 1990s, and into the new millennium. Except for being cleaned every six months, and occasionally fired to make sure it still worked, the M-16 stood upright and unused in the department's small gun room.
The unrest, in fact, was in the economy: up, down, up, and now down, in part because of the automotive industry's ever-shrinking presence in Michigan. A short ride to Flint provides a hint of what was, and what is, through the vast emptiness of Buick City, where acres of parking slots are filled not with cars but with man-size weeds.
Outside the office of United Auto Workers Local 599, the American flag always flies at half-staff because so many soldiers from Michigan die overseas, a union official explains. "It's just staying that way because every time we raise it, we have to lower it again."
But a flag at half-staff in Flint would seem appropriate these days no matter what.
Here in Lapeer County, property tax delinquencies are up, restaurant tips are down and people are anxious about jobs and pensions. Turn left out of the Sheriff Department's parking lot, and you'll see an empty factory; turn right, you'll find another.
John Biscoe, the county administrator, says Lapeer has spent the last few years steeling itself against the economic downturn with common business sense. For example, instead of a jail kitchen and a senior center kitchen, there is now one for both. "But separate menus," he adds.
Recently the Sheriff's Department decided to rearm its deputies, who had been using the same heavy Smith & Wesson handguns since 1992. A newer and much lighter model costs about $490 each, Rapson says. "But we knew we were not going to get the resources from the county commissioners."
Then someone remembered that M-16 in the gun room. By now it was a treasure: an early model in excellent condition, fully automatic and "fully transferable," too, which meant that because it was so old, its sale would not be hindered by a 1986 federal law that, with a few exceptions, prohibits the transfer or possession of new fully automatic machine guns.
Soon an auction announcement was appearing on the department's Web site, along with a photograph of the M-16 above the words, "Not many scratches."
Rapson says the machine gun is worth more than $15,000, which is but one reason why gang members, say, are unlikely to submit a bid. "Why should they?" he says. "They can just go to some back-alley machine shop."
Most likely, he says, the winning bidder will hold the gun for a while - thinking who knows what - then vacuum-seal it and place it in a vault, the way a coin collector might protect an investment in a rare silver dollar.
Bids must be received by 5 p.m. May 1. All applicable laws apply, and any sale is contingent upon a background check by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
And if the Sheriff's Department still doesn't like the looks of the winning bidder, Rapson says, "We have a caveat in our process: We can refuse all bids."
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070325/NEWS/703250421/1039
By DAN BARRY
The New York Times
LAPEER, Mich. - If you've ever wanted to own an M-16 rifle, and who hasn't, now is your chance. The Sheriff's Department here in Lapeer County has put theirs up for bid, and as far as fully automatic machine guns go, she's a beauty.
"This is the real deal from the Colt factory and marked as M-16 with safe, semi and auto selector switch," reads the department's solicitation for bids. "This weapon is complete and well maintained."
And a surefire conversation starter.
But the auction is less about a proud addition to someone's private artillery than it is about Michigan's faltering economy. These are strange, tight times here, so strange and tight that it sort of makes sense for a law enforcement agency to sell off a machine gun so that it can afford to buy other guns.
"We've all been cut beyond the meat, beyond the bone," says Robert Rapson, the undersheriff.
Which is why that near-mint M-16, a member of the department longer than some sheriff's deputies have been alive, was suddenly busted from the rank of firearm to collectible.
Rapson, 55 and burly, has a voice as deep as his affection for his county, Lapeer, a farming and bedroom community of 93,000 people, with tidy towns, dozens of lakes and an economy whose link to the automotive industry is reflected in obituaries: 30 years at Buick City; 15 years with the AC Spark Plug Division. Detroit is about 60 miles to the south, Flint about 20 miles to the west.
Rapson joined the Sheriff's Department in 1974, when it had just 16 members, a fifth of today's complement. Over the years he did everything from road patrol to detective work to running the county jail - so much late-night cop work that he developed an allergy to coffee. Ask him about a ribbon of distinction on his brown uniform, and he declines to elaborate.
Back in 1975, he was dispatched to a local gun company to pick up an M-16 A-1, purchased for $500 and capable of shooting hundreds of rounds a minute. His superiors were concerned, he says, about the potential for "civil unrest."
Some deputies were fresh from Vietnam and knew how to shoot an M-16. Others, like Rapson, had to be trained. "I'll always remember how noisy it was," he says. "How hot it was, and how inaccurate it was."
Fortunately, civil rest reigned in Lapeer County through the 1970s, the 1980s, the 1990s, and into the new millennium. Except for being cleaned every six months, and occasionally fired to make sure it still worked, the M-16 stood upright and unused in the department's small gun room.
The unrest, in fact, was in the economy: up, down, up, and now down, in part because of the automotive industry's ever-shrinking presence in Michigan. A short ride to Flint provides a hint of what was, and what is, through the vast emptiness of Buick City, where acres of parking slots are filled not with cars but with man-size weeds.
Outside the office of United Auto Workers Local 599, the American flag always flies at half-staff because so many soldiers from Michigan die overseas, a union official explains. "It's just staying that way because every time we raise it, we have to lower it again."
But a flag at half-staff in Flint would seem appropriate these days no matter what.
Here in Lapeer County, property tax delinquencies are up, restaurant tips are down and people are anxious about jobs and pensions. Turn left out of the Sheriff Department's parking lot, and you'll see an empty factory; turn right, you'll find another.
John Biscoe, the county administrator, says Lapeer has spent the last few years steeling itself against the economic downturn with common business sense. For example, instead of a jail kitchen and a senior center kitchen, there is now one for both. "But separate menus," he adds.
Recently the Sheriff's Department decided to rearm its deputies, who had been using the same heavy Smith & Wesson handguns since 1992. A newer and much lighter model costs about $490 each, Rapson says. "But we knew we were not going to get the resources from the county commissioners."
Then someone remembered that M-16 in the gun room. By now it was a treasure: an early model in excellent condition, fully automatic and "fully transferable," too, which meant that because it was so old, its sale would not be hindered by a 1986 federal law that, with a few exceptions, prohibits the transfer or possession of new fully automatic machine guns.
Soon an auction announcement was appearing on the department's Web site, along with a photograph of the M-16 above the words, "Not many scratches."
Rapson says the machine gun is worth more than $15,000, which is but one reason why gang members, say, are unlikely to submit a bid. "Why should they?" he says. "They can just go to some back-alley machine shop."
Most likely, he says, the winning bidder will hold the gun for a while - thinking who knows what - then vacuum-seal it and place it in a vault, the way a coin collector might protect an investment in a rare silver dollar.
Bids must be received by 5 p.m. May 1. All applicable laws apply, and any sale is contingent upon a background check by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
And if the Sheriff's Department still doesn't like the looks of the winning bidder, Rapson says, "We have a caveat in our process: We can refuse all bids."
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070325/NEWS/703250421/1039
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