Greetings folks, and a Happy 4th Of July!
I wanted to get this off today because at my age, there's no telling if I'll remember to do it tomorrow...
Let me preface this by saying I'm not in any way, shape or form a gun collector nor any type of Smith/Colt etc. expert. However, these handguns are part of my research and our website contains much of that with regard to the FBI's early weaponry.
I'm attaching a document I ran across revealing some older S&W revolvers turned in when the Bureau elected the .38 Colt Police Positive in June, 1933 as the "weapon of choice." In this instance, the S&W's are in the New Orleans Bureau office.
What we do know, in a nutshell, is that the Bureau had a limited amount of weaponry in the various field offices going back into the 1920s. Some of those weapons were Smith models along with older Colt models. In 1933, immediately after the Kansas City Massacre, the Bureau went "ba**s to the wall" in securing a variety of weaponry for its agents and began formal firearms training. (By the way, the idea that the Bureau did not carry weapons until the legislation of 1934 is pure myth! I've detailed that argument recently at our site also.)
I'm making this doc avail to all to 1) show the existence of the S/W's but more importantly, in this case, the serial numbers shown. Perhaps some of you guys can make heads or tails out of those serial numbers and offer a comment about anything you notice.
By the way, in early documents you'll see the term "Division," i. e. "sent to the Division," "the Division has decided" and so on. This term means FBI/Bureau Headquarters in Washington, D. C.
See the attached. Our site involving FBI historical issues of the 1930s is located at: historicalgmen.squarespace.com if interested. (No advertising allowed; nothing to buy!)
Enjoy the Holiday!
Larry Wack
FBI - (Ret. '68-'03)