Pre-86 M60 for $1995?

[kwb377]

I was going through a box from my mom's attic with magazines and catalogs I saved from my teens in the mid-80's, and found this ad from a June 1985 Shotgun News.

Anyone have a Delorean I can borrow for just a few? I wonder how many M60's I could stuff into the passenger seat...

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20230110/ca6a436732ed099c9376956c2dfdab9a.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20230110/93e2ff8b5669ae58184a99bb4a44be8c.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20230110/3b9b73cd799d5f52b0a773ea6a005867.jpg

[TGS]

I feel like framing this and putting it up in the 80's throwback section of our office, a little coffee area, where we keep a bunch of old 80s cop magazines (with the centerfold girls), old movies, old police tactics books, etc.

[Suvorov]

That’s what, about $6000 in todays money? My local Scheels has a semiautomatic M249 fore $10K.

Looks like I was born in the wrong decade….

[Jim Watson]

You have to consider both inflation and the chilling effect of the GOPA '86.

A live legal new Auto Ordnance Thompson SMG was about $1250 pre-86. A friend paid $2500 for one a year or two after the "registry was closed." Then prices really took off.

A semi-auto imitation Thompson now starts at $1700. A real Tommy gun would not need to cost more in a free market.
I cannot find whether they still make full autos for military and police sales. Probably not, there are so many more modern - and cheaper - guns out there.


I feel like framing this and putting it up in the 80's throwback section of our office,

My pinup was an American Handgunner centerfold of a prewar Government Model still with hang tag and price tag... $41.50
I doubt that was what the Hollywood Gun Shop was asking for it, though.

[jh9]

I dunno. How difficult in practice was it to do NFA (specifically machine gun) stuff in the 80s? A bit later (90s) I knew some people that had run the NFA gauntlet and there was a "may issue" vibe to a lot of it depending on where you were. Were trusts a thing back then? CLEO sign offs becoming CLEO notification seems like it's still a pretty recent thing. (And a pretty big thing.)

Maybe I'm wrong. But that seems like the sort of thing that you had to be in the right place with the right connections to ever actually get the stamp in your hands. Gun culture in the US in the 80s and 90s was wildly different even in the Deep South than it is in 2023 with e-forms, youtube how-tos, google results telling you where the local NFA dealers (plural) are and the internet communities built around all that.

[Suvorov]

Maybe I'm wrong. But that seems like the sort of thing that you had to be in the right place with the right connections to ever actually get the stamp in your hands. Gun culture in the US in the 80s and 90s was wildly different even in the Deep South than it is in 2023 with e-forms, youtube how-tos, google results telling you where the local NFA dealers (plural) are and the internet communities built around all that.

Absolutely! I remember being “THAT GUY” with the tactical guns (Colt Sporter and M1A) back in the 1990s getting off looks by many a the range I was a member of. And this was Wyoming!

[Jim Watson]

My friend mentioned above never reported any difficulty getting the stamps for his SMGs in the 1980s.

There was a HK MP5 floating around town in the 90s and naughts, I know of three owners, so the transfer must not have been too onerous.

My other Thompson shooting friend saw an ad for one of those law enforcement assistance deals, and schmoozed the sheriff into ordering one for $250 and issuing it to him. Legally a department weapon, but nobody but L. ever carried it. When he was killed in a car wreck, The Thompson went back to the courthouse, but that was a long time ago and I have no idea where it ended up. Either traded in for something more modern or just rusting in a closet.

[Evil_Ed]

You have to consider both inflation and the chilling effect of the GOPA '86.

A live legal new Auto Ordnance Thompson SMG was about $1250 pre-86. A friend paid $2500 for one a year or two after the "registry was closed." Then prices really took off.

A semi-auto imitation Thompson now starts at $1700. A real Tommy gun would not need to cost more in a free market.
I cannot find whether they still make full autos for military and police sales. Probably not, there are so many more modern - and cheaper - guns out there.



My pinup was an American Handgunner centerfold of a prewar Government Model still with hang tag and price tag... $41.50
I doubt that was what the Hollywood Gun Shop was asking for it, though.

Lots of USGI prices went through the roof after Saving Private Ryan came out. You could buy WWII M1/M1A1 Thompsons for well less than 5 grand before that movie; 1911s, Garands and M1 Carbines were similarly cheap. The real price hike really didn't hit until a few years after SPR hit the theaters/came out on video; with all the video games that came out in the years following, really.

If only I had lived in a free state before then...I could have bought a real Thompson for less than I paid for my watch in another thread at the time :(

[jtcarm]

The milsurp ads in the back of pre-68 gun rags would set you to droolin these days.

If I could go back in time, I’d need something a lot bigger than a Deloren to haul everything back.

[CleverNickname]

I dunno. How difficult in practice was it to do NFA (specifically machine gun) stuff in the 80s? A bit later (90s) I knew some people that had run the NFA gauntlet and there was a "may issue" vibe to a lot of it depending on where you were. Were trusts a thing back then? CLEO sign offs becoming CLEO notification seems like it's still a pretty recent thing. (And a pretty big thing.)
Trusts were always a thing in that the law or regulations didn't change, but I don't think the firearm community in general realized trusts in particular were acceptable to possess NFA firearms until the mid 00's.

CLEO signoffs changed to notifications in 2013 IIRC.


If only I had lived in a free state before then...I could have bought a real Thompson for less than I paid for my watch in another thread at the time :(
If only I had been born a decade or two earlier, I'm sure my machinegun collection would be a lot bigger than it is now. A few years ago my mom was going through some old school paperwork of mine (I was homeschooled for most of my childhood), and she came across a list of questions I had in 2nd grade that I wanted to research at the library. Most of them were astronomy-related since at the time I wanted to be an astronomer when I grew up. But the question that stood out was "What's the difference between a machinegun and a submachinegun?" Even though I don't remember making that list, the fourth gun I ever bought was a transferable Uzi so it must've stuck with me subconsciously.

[BWT]

CLEO signoffs changed to notifications in 2013 IIRC.

This was a change that occurred during the ATF’s NRPM 41P that was solicited by NFATCA but yes 2013.

Thank God it went to just notification. Our friends over at NFATCA very nearly made it signature required out of their sheer incompetence.

ETA: That was a bit harsher than normal for me but non the less true.

[AMC]

I feel like framing this and putting it up in the 80's throwback section of our office, a little coffee area, where we keep a bunch of old 80s cop magazines (with the centerfold girls), old movies, old police tactics books, etc.

Whoa, whoa, whoa! Take it easy on the 'old' word there! Damn kids. Probably don't even have a moustache.....