A little help from the NES Brain trust.

[Darksideblues42]

As I mentioned in quite a few other threads, my Great-grandfather was a rare breed of man. He started what would be considered an ROTC program while at Phillips Exeter Academy in 1916, buying the uniforms, drill rifles, and Target rifles out of his allowance. ($54.65 for Two Dozen uniforms, a bunch of drill rifles, and a few functional ones)

He later served in the Army, retiring as a Lt Col, having commanded a Shore Battery Division during WWII.

He was also an accomplishment engineer with Consolidated Edison, and ran their returning veterans program.

The help I am looking for is trying to sort out what he would have owned for a personal handgun.

I found his 1945 License from New York, and am hoping I can get some help sorting out what his handgun was.

It was a .38 caliber Colt, seemingly an Automatic, with potentially a stupidly low serial number.








Any thoughts or insight?

 

[Len-2A Training]

It was a Colt revolver, can't help wrt the model.

 

[FPrice]

Reading the back of his license, the word "PISTOL" appears to be crossed out. Looks like it was a REVOLVER to me.

Now, if I am correct, most of the three-digit serial numbers (with no letter prefix) appear to date back to the early 1900's.

Without more information, a Police Positive or Police Positive Special, maybe an Officers Model from about 1930.

Need more information (which you probably don't have) to be any more specific.

 

[Rob Boudrie]

NY was issuing licenses like that until not to many years ago. I moved from Rochester, NY in 1987 and my NY license looked pretty much like that, except the paper was light blue. I believe they have switched to plastic cards.

 

[boscru]

nice piece of family history. got a chuckle out the line "invalid in the city of new york" even 70 years ago NYC was anti gun.

 

[Len-2A Training]

nice piece of family history. got a chuckle out the line "invalid in the city of new york" even 70 years ago NYC was anti gun.

IIRC the Sullivan Act goes back to ~1910ish.

 

[MisterHappy]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sullivan_Act

 

[SpaceCritter]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sullivan_Act

The act was named for its primary legislative sponsor, state senator Timothy Sullivan, a notoriously corrupt Tammany Hall politician.

 

[MisterHappy]

That's my shocked face, too.