Sheriff trades rare gun for new firearms for CCSD

Sheriff trades rare gun for new firearms for CCSD

Funds from valuable Tommy gun a boon for department

news@theeveningtimes.com

Crittenden County Sheriff’s Department will be trading in a 1928 Tommy gun that has been collecting dust in its vault since 1968 and using the profits to purchase all new 9 mm Glock pistols and some riot gear.

Sheriff Mike Allen told the Quorum Court that Cruise Uniforms and Equipment in Jonesboro, has offered the department $28,000 for the machine gun, plus $280 apiece as trade in value for all 55 of the department’s current .40-caliber Glock handguns.

The deal will leave the department with $16,900 left over in store credit.

“Bottom line is, we’ve got an opportunity to get all new pistols for our officers at no cost to our department,” Allen said. “The county can take this gun and trade it in and actually get $28,000 and we will still have an in-store credit after everything of $16,000.”

The Sheriff’s Department is transitioning from the .40-caliber to 9 mm Glocks. An FBI study concluded that the 9mm out- performed the .40-caliber as far as accuracy, less recoil, higher magazine capacity, lower cost, and higher functional reliability rates.

“I’ve been talking to my training officer and a lot of other departments throughout the United States are going back to the 9 mm Glock pistols as service weapons,” Allen said.

Allen said the Tommy gun was purchased by former Sheriff Marion Thomas in 1968 and has just been sitting in the gun vault ever since.

In fact, Allen said he had no idea the gun even existed until it was brought to his attention last year.

The “Tommy gun” was made famous in the 1920s and 1930s by gangsters and the “G-Men” who used them to fight bootlegging and organized crime.

The weapon was originally stamped as a model 1921 but after World War II was modified and stamped over by the Navy in 1928.

Allen said that the Tommy gun has no practical law enforcement value, but is a valued collector’s item.

“They used them back in the old Bonnie and Clyde days,” Allen said. “But if you’ve ever shot a fully automatic 45 caliber machine gun, by the time you pull the trigger it tends to rise up on you. It’s not a type of weapon we would want to use nowadays for law enforcement unless you want to shoot up a car like Bonnie and Clyde.”

Last year, St. Louis sold 27 similar Thompson submachine guns it had in its arsenal for $22,000 apiece and used the money to purchases 1,500 new 9 mm handguns for its officers.

Allen said Cruise’s offer of $28,000 is right in line with what one would sell for on the market. A similar gun owned by a police department in North Carolina sold for $37,000 on an online auction site.

“It’s kind of a win-win,” Allen said. “It’s just sitting in our inventory not doing anyone any good.”

Allen said he plans to use the remaining $16,000 to buy riot gear.

“If something came up in Memphis and there was some kind of civil unrest where they were throwing bricks and bottles, the Sheriff’s department currently has zero riot gear,” Allen said. “So if a deputy shows up and they are throwing bricks, other than getting back in his car and driving off, we actually have no riot gear.”

The cost for 25 riot helmets

and shields comes to

about $7,682.

Allen said he will find a legitimate use for the remaining funds.

Justice Claude “Shorty” Steele praised Allen for being able to turn something with limited value to the department into a major benefit for the county.

“You have put together something very interesting,” Steele said. “We appreciate it.”

Justice Robert Thorne agreed.

“It seems like they are giving

you a good deal,”

Thorne said.

By Mark Randall