About a year or so ago someone posted a “Chicago Sun Times” article about an interview with a Chicago gang banger where he said one way they get their weapons is by robberies much like this one. Only trouble is one of those rifles is a lot larger and more awkward than the hand guns they prefer.
Ecclesiastes 1:9 (NIV, © 2011) 9 What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.
The gangsters from the 1920s-1930s would burglarize National Guard and local LEO armories to get the Browning M1918 BAR cal. 30-06. I think it was still possible, at least up till 1934, to buy the Thompson M1928 cal. .45 over the counter.