Ohio Sheriff's Dept Auctioning Off a Thompson Model 1921
When I was a kid the Thompson sub machine gun was one of my favorite guns. It just looked cool in those old gangster and WWII movies with the drum mag and the foregrip. Unfortunately I’ll probably never own a real Thompson sub machine gun, they’re a bit out of my price range. If you’re in the market for one the Tuscarawas County Sheriff’s office in Ohio will be auctioning off a Thompson Model 1921 that they’ve had in their possession for 83 years.
Sheriff Abe Laird originally purchased the Chicago Typewriter back on May 13, 1934, it has a low serial number too. Their current Sheriff Orvis Campbell isn’t sure why they bought the Thompson, they think it was during riots they had in the county during the Great Depression. They had the 1921 Thompson recently appraised by an expert at around $37,000, they’re expecting to get around $50,000 at auction. The Thompson is all original minus the original carrying case and it has been stored in their weapons armory all these years with the occasional cleaning a few times a year. The last time the Thompson was fired was during SWAT training five years ago. The Tuscarawas County Sheriff’s office will be using proceeds from the sale of the Thompson for new firearms, weapons lights and holsters for their officers.
This isn’t the first time police departments have sold off Thompsons, the St. Louis police sold 27 Thompsons at $22,000 a piece a few months back.
Long time gun enthusiast, Sci-Fi nerd, Whiskey drinker, online marketer and blogger. My daily firearms musings can be found over at my gun blog ArmoryBlog.com and Instagram.Shoot me an email at ray.i@staff.thefirearmblog.com
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Need to hit the lottery. Nice gun, too rich for this year.
a lot of these guns were donated to pd's when the "labor wars" of the 20's and 30"s came to end and the power of the unions increased...some have paperwork...some don't...recall a recent experience I had with an officer of the federal reserve which possessed a number of them and wanted to melt them down and create a sculpture....YIKES!