Thread: G-Men weapons
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Old 02-13-2012, 07:16 PM
Yournamehere Yournamehere is offline
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Originally Posted by Excalibur View Post
My logic is that if it existed at that time period, and if it is possible to get it, it should be in it.
The problem is those are two very broad qualifications. For example, today, the Remington 1911R1 exists, and is for sale on the market. Does that mean your local police officer has one? No, I highly doubt it. For one it's not a particularly fascinating gun as was the case of a lot of the guns of the 50's or any era, nor is it probably an approved gun for many agencies, again, something to consider in the era.

As for revolvers again, S&W didn't begin numbering their models until the mid 1950's so technically, none of those models even existed. They had the named counterparts of the day (M&P for the Model 10, K38 "Combat Masterpiece" for the Model 15, and Registered Magnum for the Model 27), but they were not referred to by model number yet. I don't know how common .38/44 was at the time, but it's probably better to err on the safe side and just give him a .38. I think a lot of people hate doing that because .38s reputation today is this weak and wimpy cartridge, but the thing is it's completely in it's element any time before the last 30 years, and for that time it was the caliber of choice for many and carried by just about everyone. I'd also say scratch the Police Positive and go for the more modern Official Police, which fits the date better and is also chambered in .38 Special.

I think some of these ideas are way too into prohibition era and blatantly ripping off prohibition era films, namely Public Enemies. Drum Thompsons and BARs were more of that era than post World War II. As most of us know the final rendition of the Thompson was the M1A1, which I would recommend be the Thompson of choice, unless you find an issued Thompson which better fits the bill. The BAR, while at this time is unmatched in firepower capability, is a very heavy weapon, and I don't believe it was the issue weapon of any police force of the time, nor do I see it filling that role. At the very least it should be an M1 Garand in place of that, if not a simple .30-06 bolt gun. Not sure about M1 Carbines either. Again, this is the FBI in the 1950's, not World War II, so the M1 Carbine may not be an issue/appropriate gun, nor is it a particularly wonderful choice given other weapons you could pick.

Lastly, I understand how it could seem a bit boring to give characters somewhat "generic" weapons and calibers, but on the other end of the spectrum, it's far too blatant and pretentious to give them something way too particular or extravagant. It seems really contrived, as if you're trying to tell your reader "hey, I know a lot about guns" when it probably ends up saying "hey, I tried to place some obscure items in here to make it seem like I know a lot". The machine pistol is a great example of this on both fronts. On one end, it is ridiculously particular, so particular in fact that the only place in history where one was ever noted was in John Dillinger's gang, and that's it. Putting it in one's own writing is an obvious borrowing of the concept from that gun, because that's the only one out there to inspire one to give it to a character. On the other hand, it has been brought into the mainstream know having been used in Public Enemies, so everyone who has seen that film knows about the once fascinatingly obscure machine pistol in .38 Super. This is what puts the final nail in the coffin housing the ability to pay homage to that weapon. It's way too specific, everyone knows about it, and frankly it's not a very effective weapon anyway, so the edginess and cleverness in placing it in the story is completely gone. It's better to give him a generic .38 or .45 that you know an FBI man would have than to force a particular gun on a character, it just makes more sense that way.
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