The St. Louis PD bought several hundred Colt 1911s in .38 Super during the 1930s to be used (supposedly) for chasing auto-borne bank robbers. The theory was that this round could penetrate auto bodies better than the .38s most cops carried at the time. Most of those pistols stayed in the armories, and many years later were sold as a group to a very lucky buyer.

I realize that many/most modern PDs provide either shotguns or rifles/carbines in patrol cars these days. But what do you feel the purpose of that is? More crime now, more bad guys with more guns? Or is it just a precautionary measure, for "just in case"? Please let me know your thoughts on this.

When I first moved back to St. Louis, my friend here had a gun store and he decided he wanted to do business with some of the smaller local PDs. He was manufacturing AR15s as well, so he thought he might do some trade in business for what these departments had in their armories. I was pretty surprised with some of the things that he was offered, like M1 Garands and M1 Carbines, but I guess that was all from the Feds. There also was an occasional Reising SMG, and a UD M42 9mm SMG that really surprised me. He also was offered many thousands of .38 Spl rounds that were just sitting in "inventory", long after the PDs had moved on to either 9mm or .40S&W. It was an interesting experience.

Harvey