In rural Mississippi, there is a town called Macon. There are other towns like it, but Macon has something most towns do not. Namely, a submachine gun. This Reising Model 50 belongs to the town, and has been there for over four decades. This unique bit of town property is usually kept in City Hall, but the town has recently decided to sell their submachine gun, if for no other reason than to clear up some room in the safe.
Macon’s ownership can be dated back to at least 1967. Mayor Bob Boykin feels that nearly fifty years in the town’s safe is long enough. Although the firearm was cheaper than its competitors at the time of its manufacture in 1940, it can now be sold for well over six thousand dollars. This particular brand of submachine gun was given to United States Marines during the Second World War, but was quickly taken out of service when it proved to be badly tested. Many of the manufactured weapons were given to the Coast Guard as well as other organizations that did not necessarily need the type of high-functioning weapons used in the war.
Long after the war was over, even State Guard organizations began to cast the firearms aside. They were then passed down to many police agencies. It is theorized that this is how Macon received their own particular submachine gun, though technically its precise origin is unknown. Following the tradition of the Marines and the State Guard, Macon has decided to pass the weapon on to someone else. In this case, that “someone else” will be a collector of Class 3 firearms.
Macon is not the first town to conceive the idea of selling off unwanted weaponry. Earlier this year, St. Louis decided to sell off a collection of Tommy guns worth one million dollars. Macon’s decision to sell the submachine gun is also preceded by a deal in North Carolina which saw two outdated guns traded for almost ninety newer models. As interesting as these historic relics are, some towns have simply decided that they are not practical to own, the Guns.com reports.
Bidding for the submachine gun took place in August, though there is no word regarding the winning bidder. There is also no word on the precise state of the Reising at the time of its sale, so it is difficult to determine whether or not the submachine gun was able to sell at the high price of over six thousand dollars that has been achieved in the past.