Sandusky,OH PD to trade Thompson for new guns

[rtroha]

I wish I could afford something like that. From the photo, it looks to be in good shape.

The city of Sandusky is trading this old-time Tommy Gun, a machine gun made popular by 1920s gangsters and Hollywood movies like The Untouchables and Scarface, along with other confiscated firearms to get new weapons and equipment for the police department.

http://www.sanduskyregister.com/articles/2008/12/30/front/1054710.txt

 

[Duke of Doubt]

They may not know what they are trading. Amazing, but I believe I have some provenance on Sandusky's Thompson. I'll be in touch with them tomorrow.

 

[shotgunjoel]

Um... that all sounds great but I would think that if that was a confiscated gun that it wouldn't be registered or would have had a lapse thus making it illegal to tranfer. Don't know though, but I'll follow this thread.

 

[Hugo]

At least they are selling it and know it's worth a lot of money. Beats melting it down like complete idiots.

 

[Duke of Doubt]

It may be transferred to other PDs or to feds, or under very limited circumstances, to others. I happen to think I know of one fed in particular who would have loved to get his hands on that particular Thompson back in the day.

 

[Tommygunn]

For some reason, the barrel on that looks weird ... the fins do not look right. Maybe it's just a photographic artifact though.

 

[pmeisel]

Wonder how they came across that.... I used to have a friend on that force but I haven;t seen him in years.

 

[Treo]

Why not just keep it for no knock warrants ?

 

[Iggy]

40 some years ago the COP in our dept traded a Thompson and a beautiful Schmeisser for 2 AR-15s.

I could have cried.

 

[SaxonPig]

MG dealers love to trade brand new, non-transferable M16s (cost about $700) to PDs for their old, outdated, TRANSFERABLE Thompsons (worth about $20,000).

You see lots of MG dealers advertising to PDs that they will trade new guns for their old ones. That's because the new ones can only be sold to cops and the old ones (made before 1986) can be sold to individuals).

 

[JImbothefiveth]

Why wouldn't a Thompson be a good police rifle? (There's probably a good reason, but I'm not sure what it is.)

 

[devildog66]

There a lot of more easily maintained MGs than a Thompson. Awesome weapon to be sure but not nearly as simple (nor as light) as say an MP 5. Probably awfully hard to suppress as well.

 

[Firethorn]

I figure they know what it's worth. By the sounds of it, they're selling the thompson, and some other guns, to equip the force with a number of NEW guns.

IE auction off the antique $20k machine gun to get 20 $1k ARs or some such.

devildog, besides the agony of modifying a now antique Thompson, there shouldn't be too much problem - .45 caliber is lower speed, should supress just fine.

 

[Trebor]

Many police agencies have *transferable* MG's that are worth quite a bit on the collector's market. Trading a Thompson for new guns makes a lot of sense in many ways.

Now, some police MG's are not transferable and can only be possessed by LEO agenices or possibly by MG dealers as Dealer Samples (depending on what Form they are registered on). Those aren't worth as much on the open market.

Either way, it beats the gun being melted down.

 

[Trebor]

Many police agencies have *transferable* MG's that are worth quite a bit on the collector's market. Trading a Thompson for new guns makes a lot of sense in many ways.

Now, some police MG's are not transferable and can only be possessed by LEO agenices or possibly by MG dealers as Dealer Samples (depending on what Form they are registered on). Those aren't worth as much on the open market.

Either way, it beats the gun being melted down.