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Sheriff set to sell antique gun from county arsenal

‘ 40s era submachine gun expected to fetch thousands in sale

news@theeveningtimes.com

Crittenden County Sheriff Mike Allen is calling it the “golden egg.”

The department recently unearthed a World War IIera Navy Colt .45 caliber Thompson submachine gun in its gun vault, and would like to auction it off and use the proceeds to purchase new handguns for the entire department.

“It’s a really neat gun,” Allen said. “It’s still in the original pouch it came in and comes with four or five magazines.”

Allen said he had heard back in the 1980s that the department had a “tommy gun,” but that the weapon has probably been sitting unused in the vault since the late 1940s.

The “Tommy Gun” was made popular in the 1920s and 1930s by gangsters such as Al Capone and John Dillinger. They were also used by law enforcement and “G-Men” to fight organized crime and bootlegging operations during the Prohibition era.

The weapon was originally stamped model #1921 but after World War II it was modified and stamped over the weapon with 1928.

Allen believes it was government surplus which was sold to law enforcement agencies sometime after the war.

“They were made for the Navy and the Marines,” Allen said. “This one is stamped Navy on it. It’s been in our inventory but has been locked up in the vault all these years.”

The guns are highly sought after by collectors and sell anywhere from $30,000 to $50,000.

Earlier this year, the St.

Louis Police Department sold 27 of its Thompson submachine guns. The weapons fetched $22,000 apiece and helped the department purchase 1,500 new 9-mm handguns for its officers.

Allen said a similar gun owned by a police department in North Carolina sold on www.govdeals.com for $37,870.

“We did some research and sure enough, these models sell for around $30,000 or more,” Allen said.

Allen believes theirs might sell for even higher because it still has the original pouch and magazine clips.

“That should make it even more collectible than the one in North Carolina,” Allen said. “We’ve got the state Glock dealer who is going to come look at it and give us an estimate as to what it might be worth.”

Allen said although it is a very nice weapon, it has no practical law enforcement value today.

“If we wanted to shoot up a car and make it look like John Dillinger, this would be the gun you would use,” Allen said. “But today we have SWAT weapons that are semi automatic and accurate. It’s not like we could put this in somebody’s unit. They say it’s real hard even to control.

You shoot and it rises up.

You start shooting at their feet and eventually you get to their head.”

Allen said he would like to use the proceeds to replace the department’s 40 caliber handguns with 9 mm handguns.

The FBI and many law enforcement agencies across the country are swapping over to 9 mm handguns because they have less recoil, higher magazine capacity, and cost less for ammunition.

“The FBI has found that in the majority of their testing, your shooting scores and accuracy is so much better with a 9 mm,” Allen said.

“And the round has as much stopping power as a 40 and 45 caliber. The FBI said that law enforcement officers miss 70 to 80 percent of their shots during a shooting incident because of the 40 calibers and the bigger rounds and recoil.”

Allen said the money from the sale will be enough to replace all 56 handguns and to buy riot gear for the department.

“We would trade in our old ones and upgrade our armory,” Allen said. “And I know it sounds crazy, but in today’s world if we went in to a situation where they were throwing rocks, we don’t have adequate riot gear.”

Allen said while he hates to sell such a historic gun, the money will do more good for the county and they may as well let a collector enjoy it.

“It’s one of those things where it’s not useable and is just collecting dust,” Allen said. “This will benefit the county and won’t cost us any money.”

By Mark Randall