Gary, All the 100+ examples sold to the S&WCA members some years ago, were functional and working, to my knowledge, but had a "Do Not Fire" tag on some of them due to the factory worrying about liability. I've has probably 1/2 doz of these, still have one, and have fired them many times with no problems, using US made ammo., not European ammo. I've never seen a de-milled specimen so there must be a story behind the one up for auction - probably was owned by a resident of New York, or some other anti-gun state that called it an assault rifle! The Model 1940 light rifle is a perfect example of a "Failure to Communicate." The Brits, in a panic for firearms early in WW2 because they had disarmed their citizens with anti-gun laws, had to look for any place willing to sell them guns. S&W was about to go bankrupt so the chance to sell $1,000,000 dollars of something the Brits wanted, sent the factory engineers to the drawing boards to design a carbine with the quality of the handguns S&W had made for 80 yrs. The design had serious defects a rifle maker would not have made, but a handgun maker that had never designed or made a rifle, came up with the Model 1940 and forgot to check what ammo. would be used in it by the Brits, incorrectly assuming all 9mm ammo is the same. Actually the gun is a 9mm semi auto pistol with a 9 inch barrel and a fixed shoulder stock. ( Some experimental guns had folding stocks .) Don't let the name "Light Rifle" fool you, these are very heavy weapons, around 10+ pounds loaded. The "Model 1940 Light Rifle" was the name the Brits gave it, as in their military nomenclature a 9 mm caliber was a "light" caliber therefore it was a "Light Rifle" even though their orders for the gun called for a carbine. Go figure ! Ed