A pair of guns reportedly seized from gangsters Bonnie and Clyde have sold for a combined $210,000 at auction.

The guns, an 1897 12-gauge Winchester shotgun and a .45-caliber Thompson submachine gun (a ‘tommy gun’ in common parlance), were both reportedly found by authorities after a 1933 shootout with police. The auction in Kansas City saw an anonymous online bidder make winning bids of $80,000 for the Winchester shotgun, and $130,000 for the tommy gun.

The guns had not come with a pre-auction valuation, though online bids for the tommy gun had reached $35,000. Auctioneer Robert Mayo, owner of Mayo Auction & Realty, told Reuters he wasn’t alarmed by the final high prices, stating: “We’re happy. Nothing ever surprises me.”

Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were lovers in Depression-era America, and are perhaps the two most famous names in the history of American gangsters. Romanticised in films and by their deaths at a young age, the pair staged a shootout with police in Joplin, Missouri, on April 13, 1933. Police stormed an apartment where the couple were hiding out, but the pair escaped, and two officers died in the shootout.

The weapons sold at auction this week were found at the scene, and later given to Tulsa police officer Mark Lairmore, who kept them in the Lairmore family until this week. The guns had been in a police museum in Springfield, Missouri, from 1973 until late-2011.

The guns attracted several bids, including from one Michael Brown, who stated he was representing a group behind a new gangster museum being planned in Las Vegas. “There are very few guns with the historic value of that one,” Brown told Reuters. The winning bid would seem to confirm that.

Bonnie and Clyde Guns Sold at Auction is a post from: The Inquisitr

A sheriff in South Carolina urged women this week to carry pistols in an attempt to stop rapists.  Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright told women in his precinct, ”you ain’t got to be accurate; you just have to get close.”

The sheriff made his remark after a female was walking her dog when she was choked and nearly raped by a repeat offender.  According to Sheriff Wright women should apply for a permit to carry a concealed weapon to deal with “animals” while he added “[our] form of justice is not making it. Carry a concealed weapon. That’ll fix it.”

Wright told WYFF4-TV that the man would likely have been stopped sooner if he was met by a female with a gun. During the conference the officer held up a modern-day holster and fanny pack used for concealing a “small pistol” and he even recommended the brand of gun women should consider buying.

Speaking about the reaction he expects from liberals Wright said:

“I’m tired of looking at victims saying, ‘There’s life after this.’ I’m tired of saying, ‘We’re sorry, we can’t keep them in jail.’”

When asked if he believed in gun control he said:

“When you can get your barrel on the target quick, that’s gun control.”

What do you think about Sheriff Wright’s remarks and suggestions regarding a conceal and carry solution?

[Image courtesy of ShutterStock]

South Carolina Sheriff To Women: Carry A Pistol To Kill Rapists is a post from: The Inquisitr

Five New York Police Department (NYPD) officers were arrested on Tuesday after a sting operation turned up a ring of smuggled firearms, stolen cigarettes and illegally obtained slot machines.

The five men have been charged along with seven other people during an unsealed complaint in Manhattan court. Among the other defendants are three retired NYPD officers and one New Jersey corrections officer.

The FBI-NYPD investigation began in 2009 after an informant tipped off authorities that an NYPD officer began asking questions about trading in stolen goods.

An undercover police officer and the informant soon began providing the defendants with stolen cigarettes and other goods they said were obtained form out of state.

As the investigation moved forward the NYPD officers soon made arrangements to transport 20 weapons from New Jersey to New York, renting mini-vans to move the goods. According to court filings the men attempted to smuggle three automatic rifles, a shotgun and 16 handguns, “the majority of which had obliterated or altered serial numbers.”

The arrests come at a time when the New York Police Department has been accused of framing people to meet quotas while one officer was recently charged with extortion and using racial slurs against black people.

Are you surprised to learn that some of New York’s men in blue are responsible for moving deadly weapons and stolen goods across state lines?

NYPD Officers Arrested In Gun Smuggling Ring is a post from: The Inquisitr

I’ve seen variations on this sign but I just want to point out that if I was a criminal I might just want to break into the house with the guns when their not home and steal them. Perhaps this guy should have thought about his motives a little bit more before posting the sign.

No Gun Control For The Neighbor [Funny Pic] is a post from: The Inquisitr

It doesn’t matter how you slice it but this idea of buying an umbrella with a rifle stock as its handle is something only a member of the NRA could love.

I mean really, how is it a good idea to be walking around the streets of America, or any other country for that matter, with what resembles a rifle half covered with cloth.

Talk about making yourself a target for constant police shakedown at the very least; but should you insist on being an idiot head over to the Brando site and order yourself one for $18.

via DVICE

Today’s really stupid idea – rifle umbrellas is a post from: The Inquisitr

As he says in the video – don’t mess with America. No kidding considering that Michael was born without any arms and yet he can still load an shoot a .45 ACP handgun using only his feet.

via Neatorama

Amazing – no arms, yet man loads and shoots with his feet is a post from: The Inquisitr

Jack Streat isn’t a man who does things by halves. So when he sat down to recreate a Lee Enfield sniper rifle out of LEGO Technics, he didn’t just build a static replica – he built a fully functional model. Damn.

Okay, “fully functioning” is stretching things a bit. I mean, the thing only p-toos LEGO bricks about five feet, so it’s not going to wake your cat, let alone take down big game. But it is some engineering feat, and even boasts a working bolt-action mechanism and removable clips. Here’s a neat video of Streat taking down terrorist LEGO bricks around his house:

[Via ohgizmo]

[VIDEO] The fully functional LEGO sniper rifle is a post from: The Inquisitr

[Dontevenreply.com, via Geekologie]

Awesome: Man seeks disguised weapons, hilarity ensues is a post from: The Inquisitr

Gilbert Arenas is stupid idiot, and in the end his stupidity is going to cost him 85 million dollars. It is not news the Gilbert though it to be wise to bring a bunch of guns to the Washington Wizard’s arena, store them in his locker, and then allegedly brandish one of them at a teammate over a gambling debt. These actions were not only against NBA regulations, but quite possible Washington DC gun laws, which happen to be among the strictest in the country. He followed that up by going out in a NBA game last night and pretending to shoot his teammates.

This guy just doesn’t understand the severity of what he did. Needless to say NBA commissioner David Stern was forced to drop the boom on him, and he is now indefinitely suspended from the NBA without pay. It seems very likely that the league and the team will work to void his contract, for which he has four years and 85 million dollars left on, and if Arenas is really lucky he will avoid going to prison.

Washington DC, or really the sports world in general, was not the place to fool around with guns. It is not the place where guns should be, and Gilbert is a moron for trying to make light on a very serious infraction. Before last night’s sickening display, Stern was willing to wait out the completion of the police investigation. However Arenas was unable to keep his head down, unable to avoid acting a clown and those actions maybe even more so than the original gun infraction are why he should lose his contract.

Inner city gun violence is not a punch line to use to promote you twitter account, guns are serious, and Gilbert cannot find it in himself to understand that. He says, he took the guns out of his house to protect his children, but brought them to an arena full of fans, fans that quite possible have been drinking. That is ignorance of the highest level, and it should cost him his 85 million dollars.

Gilbert Arenas and his 85 million dollar mistake is a post from: The Inquisitr

While the popularity of the government’s cash for clunkers program to try and jump start the sales of more environmentally friendly cars has lead to other industries into trying similar type programs I don’t think any come close to this one.

In order to boost their sales during these hard time Sig Sauer has started their own version where they will offer up a $200 discount to gun owners who turn in their old guns and buy a brand-new Sig Sauer. Of course there are some rules to this – such as not getting a rebate for any old zip gun or some rusty .38 Special.

In order to qualify for the deal the “klunker” guns must be operational and free of cracks in the the frame or other key components. It must also be a semi-auto pistol 9mm or larder, or a revolver of .38 caliber or larger.

Call me pessimistic but I can just imagine the line-ups in cities like L.A., New York and southern states.

hat tip to Wired: Danger Room

Never mind ‘cash for clunkers’ how about ‘cash for old guns’? is a post from: The Inquisitr

When ever we think of the deadly shot coming out of nowhere with an accuracy that can be absolutely amazing our admiration for that lone sniper goes up a notch. In light of the recent Somali pirates being taken out by Navy SEAL sharpshooters the abilities of snipers are once more in the news.

As good as these guys might be DARPA wants to find ways to make them even more accurate under more difficult situations. At this point there are three active programs under DARPA’s funding that look to add to the sniper’s abilities.

EXACTO

The Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance program aims to enable rounds that could change direction in mid-air, account for crosswinds, air density and moving targets. The idea is to be able to dramatically improve the sniper’s range. If EXACTO doesn’t work out though DARPA has another guided-bullet programs such as the one to use lasers to steer rounds to their targets. Think smart bombs meet smart bullets.

One Shot

Besides trying to improve the firing of bullets and them reaching their intended targets DARPA is also working on an optical system that’ll compensate for variances in the local atmosphere. It involves using thousands of laser pulses investigators are seeking to create a profile of the ‘eddies’ in the air as the light bounces back. The scope, using a series of algorithms, can take those ‘eddies’ into account as the sniper team aims. The hope is that they will be able to increase a sniper teams range to up to 2000 meters and in winds of 40 miles per hour

SRVS

The aim of the Super-Resolution Vision System to effectively make the sniper invisible. The idea is to use that ‘heat haze’ – the shimmer you see on hot summer days in the distance – to help snipers rather than hindering them. The trick behind this idea it to digitally identify the ‘lucky regions’ or ‘lucky frames’ when a clear view appears and then assemble them into a complete picture. So even if the target is looking right at you they won’t see anything because of the heat haze.

[hat tip to Danger Room]

Snipers to get a hi-tech boost is a post from: The Inquisitr

The guns start at $2000, contact gallery1988@aol.com if you’re interested in buying one (via Gallery1988)

Perfect For LA: Designer Guns is a post from: The Inquisitr