Revisited: What unlikely guns have you seen LEO/security guards use on the job?

[billwill]

Once in the early 80's I was traveling through Mexico, I had stopped to gas up my jeep. While trying to figure out liters/gallon and pesos/dollar ratios I noticed a 4 door 1968ish Impala pull up across the street in a wooded section and two men wearing green uniforms get out of the back doors with M1 carbines and step into the woods. I'll assume they were LEOs. Then the car sped off.

I didn't wait to see what else was going to happen.

Similar event except we were stopped at a road check point. There were ARs with a several MP5's in the mix. One MP5 guy wanted to look in the trunk of the rental.

Amazing how "Yes Sir" naturally flows from you mouth while looking at an MP5! Quickly, slowly, straight as an arrow drove on down to the beach.

 

[Old TexMex]

La Saiba, Honduras: security guard with Mossberg and on his belt where you might expect a nightstick, he had a machete. I conversed with him, he said it was versatile, you can use the flat side or the "sharp side".
Actually, there's such a mishmash of weird stuff in MX and Central America.
I've seen many Mexican Federal Police carrying nickel 1911s in .38 super, most of the uniforms carry Llamas or Star.

 

[sigp220.45]

About 1980 I worked at the bus station in Champaign, Il. We briefly had a security guard - a happy old black guy who carried what he called a "Smith Colt" he steadfastly refused to show me. He carried 6 rounds in a belt slide that were either .38 wadcutters or empty cases. I suspect it was a Taurus or Rossi.

I was TDY to Darwin, Australia, one time and got pulled over for DUI by the Aussie cops. I was completely sober but was all over the road because I was forced to drive on the wrong side. The cops were cool once they figured out I was a clueless Yank and was Air Force and not Navy, who they said they blamed for bringing AIDS to Australia. They carried well worn but empty holsters that looked like they fit a 3" J frame.

I saw the same empty holster thing years later in the Turks and Caicos Islands. The Brit cop that was running things at the PD had a 2" Chief Special in his drawer he would hand out with 5 LRN rounds on an as-needed basis to his troops.

 

[RSanch111]

I worked with an old WWII vet who carried a .32 Mauser. He mostly just worked the desk and stuck it in the drawer next to him. He said he took it off a dead German kid at Mortain.

 

[NYlakesider]

About 1980 I worked at the bus station in Champaign, Il. We briefly had a security guard - a happy old black guy who carried what he called a "Smith Colt" he steadfastly refused to show me. He carried 6 rounds in a belt slide that were either .38 wadcutters or empty cases. I suspect it was a Taurus or Rossi.

I was TDY to Darwin, Australia, one time and got pulled over for DUI by the Aussie cops. I was completely sober but was all over the road because I was forced to drive on the wrong side. The cops were cool once they figured out I was a clueless Yank and was Air Force and not Navy, who they said they blamed for bringing AIDS to Australia. They carried well worn but empty holsters that looked like they fit a 3" J frame.

I saw the same empty holster thing years later in the Turks and Caicos Islands. The Brit cop that was running things at the PD had a 2" Chief Special in his drawer he would hand out with 5 LRN rounds on an as-needed basis to his troops.

Being you mention Brit I was in Jamaica a few times, and that place sure has a lot of British influence.

We were at the Dunns River Falls (of course most all tourists end up there!) and saw a few cops around. They were in uniform and easy to spot, and LOOKED unarmed..

I saw two that looked unarmed but if you look close they had an inside waist band holster that only allowed a little bit of the "handle" to stick out. We were sitting at a table next to a small stair case and this officer went up and that put his belt line at my eye height he stopped there for a few seconds and I saw it, as it stuck up so little only 2 of the serial numbers showed.

After I saw that I paid more attention and saw another officer that was armed the same way. My best guess was they were carrying 2'' J frames.

 

[BigBoy99]

When I was a security guard 50+ years ago, I carried a Colt M1917 revolver.

While in Argentina last year, I saw the female police officers carrying what looked like Astra revolvers in .32 cal.

 

[EQGuy]

About 20 years ago I was checking into a small Naval Base on the coast of Northern California and the sailors maning the gate were armed with 1917 Enfield 30-06's.

 

[Doug627]

When we played cops and robbers, the sheriff carried a rubber band gun. I can't recall the caliber. It hurt when he shot you.

 

[Massad Ayoob]

My favorite was the security guard at a Connecticut hotel many years ago. The gun in his Hunter holster was clearly...

A Crosman "38" pellet gun.

I couldn't help but ask him, "What kind of service revolver is that you're carrying?"

"Ruger," he snapped back gruffly. ".357! Magnum!" and stalked away.

Sad thing was, he had apparently figured the contraption that held in the C02 cartridge in the butt was a giveaway, so he had removed it to preserve the illusion...and couldn't even have fired a pellet from it.

 

[flundertaker]

I am sort of partial to this one.....

 

[BigBoy99]

I am sort of partial to this one.....

She just loaded her magazine backwards so now all of the rounds in the magazine are all pointed forward!

 

[DWalt]

Several stories:
When I was a kid, the bank guard at the local bank carried a Baby Colt .25 Automatic in a leather holster.

I worked in a bank in Laredo TX back in the early 1990s. The bank guard there had a German P-38, carried in a military holster.

I worked at a chemical plant east of Cleveland back in the mid 1960s. The plant security guards there carried H&R .22 revolvers- don't remember the exact type. Feral cats were a problem there, so I imagine the .22 was practical for shooting them.

I worked in Colombia (South America) in the early 1970s. In Bogota, most of the better downtown stores had guards inside. As I remember, all of them had shotguns, usually pump guns of one type or another. Also, lots of heavily armed uniformed police on the streets, most carrying SMGs or shotguns. Lots of Banditos at large in Colombia at the time, but I never saw a shootout.

One more - Mid-1980s, the City Marshal in Muleshoe TX carried a Desert Eagle in .44 Mag. Also I know of one deputy Sheriff in Kinney County TX who carries a Desert Eagle.

 

[eyegots2no]

Back in my mythical home town, in a mythical western state, we had this guy, a bounty hunter who claimed to be a confederate civil war veteran. And, I swear I'm not making this up, he drove a Jaguar XKSS.....

I thought he had a Porsche???

I believe he drove a green '66 Mustang during the week.

I always loved the Model 92 ---with 45-70 shells on the belt. Sometimes---they were 30-06 shells on the belt. The magazine could fire 6 to 12 round too.

 

[kozmic]

I sometimes find myself at my office at all hours of the night. The complex where my shop is located has a night security guy. He'll often stop by in the middle of the night when I'm there and bang on the door. I usually offer him a cup of coffee and we'll chat for a few minutes.

He doesn't "advertise it", but he carries an old, well worn, PD-issued 4" Model 10 from my home town. I told him I'd be interested in it if he ever want to part with it.

 

[JayAychOh]

I actually worked with a patrol cop in the late 80's who carried a privately owned Norinco SKS as a patrol rifle. He thought....... well, I don't know what he was thinking.

 

[cmort666]

When I was in highschool and on college breaks, I used to work for a photo developing company in downtown Chicago.

I used to walk past (the now defunct) Continental Bank frequently. They dressed their guards in fancy uniforms which looked like Germany NSDAP (Nazi Party) uniforms. One of the guards (a supervisor, I think) used to carry a 2" Smith 36 with adjustable sights in a leather duty holster.

 

[sw282]

Took my wife to the emergency room at University Hospital in Augusta last Friday nite.. Assisting patients loading and unloading were two University Hospital Guards.. They both were armed with Smith & Wesson stainless fixed site revolvers

 

[Evil Dog]

Was stationed in Spain in the late 60's, Moron Air Base. As I recall a lot of the Spanish State Police seemed to prefer a Mauser 98 of some sort.

 

[Texas Star]

Used to see quite a few RG and similar junk .38's on guards, probably because they were cheap and the guards didn't really care about guns. They were poorly paid, too.

The real lulu was a guy I worked with who wore a Ruger Old Army cap and ball .44. It was what he had. He had a dangerous post protecting a parking lot used by the phone company. Some of their female operators were also whores and their pimps were around. That sometimes led to violence, and there were holdups there.

I worked the inside desk, where all personnel entered and left the phone bldg. I wore a S&W M-64 .38 in a Safariland holster. One day, an FBI agent on his first assignment after graduating the new agent course at Quantico asked me to back him up as he tried to arrest a felon wanted for interstate flight and other crimes. One of the operators was his GF and she tipped him off by phone that we were waiting for him. He didn't show. Another woman later told me what'd happened. The agent wore an issued M-13 in an issue holster. I forget the brand but recall the appearance.

I soon got a .357 S&W M-66-3 and it became my primary duty weapon when I worked security jobs. I occasionally wore a Ruger GP-100 or a Ruger Security-Six, always in Bianchi or Safariland holsters like Bianchi's No. 5BHL or the Safariland M-29. Safariland doesn't make that now, but El Paso Saddlery does, as their Model 2. Basically the same design. I wore two speedloaders on my Bianchi River Belt, and my leather was basketweave stamped. I've never worn floral carved holsters. Not a cowboy, let alone a drugstore cowboy.

My guns had four-inch barrels, save for the SS , a six-incher.

Never wore an auto, because I'd have had to qualify separately with it and buy expensive duty leather.

Today, I'd make the effort to qualify with an auto and buy the leather. I'd wear my Beretta M-92FS and carry 124 grain JHP ammo like Speer's Gold Dot or the Federal HST.

Multiple felons are more common today, and there's the terrorist threat.

 

[shotgun693]

I was in Mexico and this 'guard' was carrying a High Standard, I wanted to buy it but couldn't figure how to get it back to Texas. Another time in Mexico a 'guard' was carrying a Colt Woodsman, I wanted that one too. I worked for Brink's in the very early 70s. We were issued S&W pre M10 Military Police .38 Spl. They were worn out junk. They issued us .38 'Police' ammo that they claimed had a steel perpetrator in it. I cut one up to check, nope. Some of the ammo was so old you could actually turn the bullet around in the case with your thumb and finger. I bought a M39 and carried that in my boot just in case. The truck I worked in had a shotgun, some off brand POC, the first time I held it the front bead fell off, LOL.