NC:Thompsons to be traded; Hundreds Destroyed by FBI

Gun Watch ^ | 8 January, 2013 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

The Chief Deputy of Forsyth County, North Carolina, came up with a smart move to save the taxpayers money: Trade two vintage 1928 Thompson submachine guns with drum magazines for 88 Bushmaster AR-15 type rifles, even up, about a $60,000 dollar value.   The Sheriff's department was smart enough to register the guns in 1968, during the amnesty that was allowed for one month.  Most people did not even know that the amnesty period existed.  Thus, these two Thompsons are legal to be sold to private citizens, and are worth over $30,000 each.  

It is far past time that another amnesty be provided for.  How can anyone argue against it?  It would bring undocumented NFA firearms that have been productively existing in this country for decades, out of the shadows and back into full contributing capacity as legal firearms.  Bills have been put forward toward this end, but have not gained any traction.

The article lets slip another item of government malfeasance that the Sheriff remembered from his training with the FBI and the Thompson.  

He is quite familiar with the Thompson submachine gun, since he had to qualify with it during training for his career in the FBI. He said leaders eventually determined that it was not something that should be used on the streets to enforce the law, so hundreds of the guns were destroyed.

“Because of the stigma attached to the Tommy gun and the organized crime and the bad guys back in the early days, it was determined that these weapons were not applicable to modern day,” Schatzman said.

Consider that.  Hundreds of vintage Thompsons, that were owned by the FBI, destroyed for no reason other than the perverse desire to prevent anyone but the  government from owning them.  As a bureaucrat/scientist for over 30 years with the Department of Defense, I became inured to waste.  Some of it is simply part of having a bureaucracy.    But to have these finely crafted pieces of American history, highly desired by responsible collectors, destroyed as a sacrifice to the gods of political correctness, is a shining example of how bureaucracies can do incredibly stupid things.

Yes, I know there are many examples, but it is good to point to a specific one now and then.


©2013 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
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[marktwain]

Destroying valuable property based on vague theories is a speciality of progressives. During the depression (caused by progressives), the Roosevelt regime slaughtered pigs and buried them while millions were hungry.

[driftdiver]

One of the most useless bans on the books.

[wastedyears]

Why does this guy want another amnesty period, instead of taking the law off the books?

[marktwain]

Taking the law off the books would be great, but you take what you can get. How can anyone argue against an amensty. Much better than nothing. It also turns out that an amenesty can simply be declared by the attorney general for 90 days, anytime he wants to. It does not take congressional action, as I thought.

[corlorde]

Destroying valuable property based on vague theories is a speciality of progressives. During the depression (caused by progressives), the Roosevelt regime slaughtered pigs and buried them while millions were hungry.

Make no mistake, these are the same kind of people who would burn books if allowed.

[Doctor 2Brains]

One of the most beautiful weapons ever created, along with the Tiger, Panther, and King Tiger tanks. None of which I can afford. Actually, I can afford the Thompson, but I just can’t bring myself to pull the trigger on that purchase. $16,000 for a Hurley repro... Tempting. Then you gotta figure the cost of firing the damn thing.

[Scrambler Bob]

“the cost of firing the damn thing.”

Make it pay its own way.

Take it where the money is.

[Doctor 2Brains]

Ha! Good one!

[The_Media_never_lie]

Look at all the coal plants that have/are closed/closing around the country, cash for clunkers, and for what?

[aimhigh]

Why does the county need 88 ARs? Are they planning a war on their citizens?

[februus]

Had a funny encounter with the Thompson that’s worth relating. In the 80’s when I was in my 20’s my girlfriend had back stage passes at Alpine Valley near Chicago for a local act that used, as part of an elaborate stage show scene a man dressed in a rabbit costume and during the course of this one song a man came out on the stage and shot a Thompson loaded with flash fire blanks at him. Now the guy with the machine gun was a third generation in a family of demolitions and Hollywood special effects biz people and former military in Korea. A little 5’2” sawed off Jewish guy who told some wild tales about his life; like the fact that at 14 he made a homemade torpedo from an acetylene torch tank - securing it to a board and knocking the end off with a balpeen hammer and dropping it one night into Lake Michigan and accidentally sinking the yacht of a gangster and having his dad birch him until he couldn’t sit down for a week for it.
Anyway, the show was sponsored by Budweiser, so there was all sorts of free beer throughout the day and he drank himself up pretty good and I did too. After a bit he asked if I wanted to see what he was there for and I said sure. He took me over to a Brinks armored car in the parking lot, flipped open the doors and inside. protected by two armed guards was a virtual arsenal of exotic weapons. He pulls down two Thompsons says “Let’s go have us some fun.” He hands me five human and animal targets and we lug everything down into the valley between the aspens: lawn chairs, beer, guns and targets. He sets things up and then pulls out a Thompson and starts blazing away - shredding the targets, the trees and anything in between. He pops open the second case and hands me the other Thompson and before too long I too am blazing away. We go on like that for about 45 minutes until a look out to my left and see coming thru the trees 16 blue uniforms with guns drawn. I quickly point this out to the old boy and pop that gun back into the case - but he just stands there with the gun on his hip like Sgt.Rock as the now angry police and highwway patrol bark orders at him. As I drop to the ground he chimes out: “Hey, you losers! I’ve gotta Class A firearms permit - you know what? If I wanna drive a goddamn Sherman tank over your front lawn in the middle of the night I can do it and get away with it!” That’s what he said just as a big, big cop picked him up and face planted him. We both got dropped into the back of a squad car handcuffed and were headed off to who knows who’s jurisdiction when the old boy started striking up a conversation - and the cop remembered him from the work his firm did on the Untouchables movie blowing up a fake building in Chicago and all. Next thing we’re turning around and heading back to Alpine Valley - they take us right back to the party. All we got was a wink and don’t do anymore shotting lecture and we were free.

I can’t even think about a Thompson without thinking about that day!

[MHGinTN]

It boggles the mind that fedzilla commands you to buy insurance, yet the same fedzilla makes having the best safety equipment when shooting something very difficult to achieve and expensive to boot. The laws on sound suppressors ought to be cancelled asap.

[Axeslinger]

So...it’s YOUR fault that they can’t have guns in Chicago anymore! ;o)

[Yo-Yo]

Why does this guy want another amnesty period, instead of taking the law off the books?

Perversely, there are far too many NFA owners who don't want the lat taken off the books, because then their $30,000 transferable Thompson becomes a $1,500 curio.

[Yo-Yo]

...They don't want the law taken off the books, either...

[antidisestablishment]

I used to have to de-mil weapons and other military surplus. The saddest thing I ever did was deliver crated Willy’s Jeeps (the best off road vehicle ever made!) to watch them get cut to pieces and crushed—all because of some idiot named Ralph Nader. And before you start the geezer jokes, this was in the 90s.

At first, they made just one nice cut right across the floor panel. Then somebody told the feds that people were just buying both halves and welding them back together. Liberals just can’t stand the sight of anyone having fun! I will shut up now before I say something to get me kicked off...

[Windcatcher]

Liberalism has paranoia at its root. They fear other people, hence their pathological need to exert totalitarian control.

[jumpingcholla34]

My Dad carried a Thompson when he was with the 32nd Infantry Division in New Guinea. He was told that he was assigned the Thompson in recognition of his having such high marksmanship scores (!). He said that compared to an M1 or an old Springfield, the Thompson was like spraying a fire hose.

[februus]

I was pretty crazy back then, but that old boy was an eye-opener about how older dogs just get crazier. He had also done the machine gun work for the nazi Indiana Jones flick and his family had done films since the start with 5 cent nickelodeon westerns and smoke pistols. He offered me a job that day, and said he had made the mistake of hiring from his family as they weren’t worth spit - but I was pretty certain I wouldn’t live out a year working with him.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

The slaughter of six million pigs by the Federal Surplus Relief Corporation was just the tip of the iceberg. Often the feds would join up with county Sheriffs and just travel from farm to farm, demanding access to all their stored crops and destroying them. Then they would tell the farmers they were no longer farmers, and to move to the cities.

This was in response to overproduction on top of deflation, basically a shortage of currency in public. But the idea of destroying food to raise its price, while people elsewhere were starving, shows their absolute lack of common sense or decency to their fellow Americans.