The image of the cop with a Victory revolver at the beginning of this message came from the NYC Municipal Archives website.

Remarkably, they have managed to digitize a huge amount of images in pretty high resolution and put them online. The search mechanisms/fields leave a b it to be desired but....
Anyway, while searching for the Victory image I came across some images of two separate at-sea firearms destructions.
I’ve placed them here because they show a very interesting progression.
The first images are from 17OCT1940. They are interesting because they show the destruction of at least 3-5 colt ‘Potato Digger’ machine guns. They department owned at least two dozen of these and I can document their deployment up through the 1920’s. I believe the ones shown in the pictures are the Department owned one. Another thing that is quite interesting is the large number of air rifles being destroyed. There is also what appears to be a water cooled machine gun being destroyed. I suspect it is a German aircraft machine gun because there is one in the Police Museum (or at least there used to be) and I remember the paperwork saying it was one of two recovered.

Bundles of guns being prepared to be tossed into the deep. Note 3rd man from left.
Image name: nypd-d-0447a
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Close-up of 3rd man from left with what appears to be a stripped Colt Potato Digger.
Image name: nypd-d-0447a
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This fellow seems to know what he has and is LIKING IT!.
. Image name: nypd-d-0447d
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Go to the website for Municipal Archives and check out the full size hi-res image and play “how many guns can you name” from this pile.
Image name: nypd_d_0447a
Image name: nypd_d_0447f
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These images below are from 1949 and you can see that WW2 is –WELL- represented!
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Examine the hi-res image and you’ll find at LEAST 2 MP40’s, 3 STG44’s, a buttload of K98’s, a Beretta SMG and all kinds of other goodies.
Image name: dma_00166a

Image name: dma_00170
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Man at left holds a sword. Man at right has air cooled MG. Behind him one can see another STG44 held by unseen person.
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Go to municipal Archives website NYC Municipal Archives and search for the image names shown above. Zoom in on the image, give the hi-res a chance to load and enjoy!