FOIA Request Responses

[DZelenka]

I finally received responses to my FOIA Requests flied last August. The good news is that there were no surprises. The one gun that I identified as a rewat was in fact a rewat. The remainder were registered as live guns. My 1928A1 was registered in late 1945 along with a bunch of others. The other Thompsons were transferred to sheriff's offices in the early to mid 1960s and then to dealers as early as 1970. My C&R MP40 was in fact owned by Winchester and transferred as part of the Olin bankruptcy in 1977. I used some outside information which was corroborated by the FOIA response. My Erb MP40 tube gun was a last minute tube registered in April 1986 and again in May 1986 ???. It wasn't built into a live gun until late 1990. Nothing was amnesty registered.

 

One thing that bothers me is the fact that they blacked out the manufacturers' names on all of the forms. I can understand the transferor and transferee information, but the manufacturer names don't seem to me to be confidential. Anyone have any info?

 

Does anyone recognize a letterhead with a Vickers on the left and an MG34 on the right? How about the telephone number 614-459-3479 (it is a clothing store now)? Apparently, that dealer transferred at least 11 dewats to another dealer for restoration into live guns in May of 1987. There are a couple of Forms 5 showing a transfer and return for "repair/return" in July 1988.

 

As always, any information is appreciated.

 

If I get a chance, I may scan some of the images and post them.

 

Dan

[DZelenka]

Heres the letterhead.

[StrangeRanger]

614 is the Columbus OH area. Any chance it could have been John Stemple?

[timkel]

That letterhead looks familiar. A dealer with the last name of Wenzel or something like that in Ohio.

[huggytree]

can you contact the last owner, get his form 4?

 

i did this and was able to get the history on mine back to 1963 when it transferred out of a PD and to a dealer..(i should say TD got that part)....i had 1 name not blocked out...i contacted his son and got the form 4 from 1963 and even the sale receipt...TD was able to trace it backwards to 2 dealers from that receipt...

 

my M16a2 appears to prove it wasnt registered until into the 2000's....im guessing a tool room gun from colt as the rumor has it on all the NIB M16s what were/are around

 

FOIA's can be neat to see.....but i think another good idea is tracing back ownership yourself....everyone with my thompson was eager to help except for 1 dealer who says he is always too busy

 

my Madsen m50 came with all of its history!....ive got every form 4 all the way back to a 1950 PD

 

 

ive done FOIA on all of my guns....sadly it seems to be taking longer!!.....ive got like 5 of them out there...nothing back in a year.....they used to be 3-4 months

Edited January 1, 2019 by huggytree

[DZelenka]

can you contact the last owner, get his form 4?

 

i did this and was able to get the history on mine back to 1963 when it transferred out of a PD and to a dealer..(i should say TD got that part)....i had 1 name not blocked out...i contacted his son and got the form 4 from 1963 and even the sale receipt...TD was able to trace it backwards to 2 dealers from that receipt...

 

my M16a2 appears to prove it wasnt registered until into the 2000's....im guessing a tool room gun from colt as the rumor has it on all the NIB M16s what were/are around

 

FOIA's can be neat to see.....but i think another good idea is tracing back ownership yourself....everyone with my thompson was eager to help except for 1 dealer who says he is always too busy

 

my Madsen m50 came with all of its history!....ive got every form 4 all the way back to a 1950 PD

 

 

ive done FOIA on all of my guns....sadly it seems to be taking longer!!.....ive got like 5 of them out there...nothing back in a year.....they used to be 3-4 months

Only if I use a séance.

[huggytree]

All of my Thompson guys were alive except the 1st one. For him I used his son as the contact. They had the form 4 and invoice from 1963

 

One of the others was very old. All the owners knew a bit about each other. I did a phone interview about the gun. Wrote a page of text from that interview.

 

The son of the 1963 owner told me about growing up with it and how his dad patrolled the trailer park they owned at night with the Thompson

 

History of a Mac is pretty boring most likely. History of a Thompson is most likely interesting.