LEO guns for the non-LEO buyer?

[Randy in Arizona]

S&W sells handguns without the lawyer-proofing parts to Law Enforcement Officers.

What legal or other problems would arise from a LEO selling a non lock equipped handgun to an average otherwise eligible resident of his state? Let us further assume no prohibitive state or local laws.

Let us assume two sets of circumstances:

1] LEO bought and used the handgun, but did not really like it enough to keep it. So it was resold to a non-LEO individual.

2] LEO bought the handgun, but did so just to be able to resell it. No particular individual in mind, ie - not a strawman sale.

 

[ColinthePilot]

I could be wrong on this, so if i am, a thousand pardons, someone please call me out.
I think the "LEO" labeled guns are only sold in bulk to departments, not to individual cops.
Of course, on the same note, a friend bought a factory certified used Sig P226, but the dealer couldn't sell him the hi-cap mags (he lives in MD) but sold them to his dad, who is a LEO. My friend is now a Federal LEO so no worries. The sale was a few weeks before he got his badge.

 

[coloradokevin]

No problems.

My duty weapon is a Glock 37 that I bought with a LEO purchase discount (from a dealer doing only LE business), and I recall that the packaging was marked with the Blue Label "For Law Enforcement Use" (or something to that effect). At the very least, I remember having to sign something agreeing to the fact that I was not buying the gun for immediate resale (because of the discount program, and type of dealer, etc).

But, there are no laws prohibiting the sale of this gun to any other legal buyer, if I were ever to choose to do so.

Although I don't own a Smith, from my understanding there is nothing "illegal" about the S&W firearms that are produced for LE, based on what you've said (ie: We aren't talking NFA stuff here... which the individual officer couldn't own anyway).

From the sounds of things, the only difference between these firearms was a decision that was made on the part of S&W as a company (perhaps that draws into question whether or not you would want to own a S&W to begin with? If they are in fact producing guns with features you don't want, just to avoid liability). As such, I'd say you would be just fine in buying one of these guns.

 

[.cheese.]

I could be wrong on this, so if i am, a thousand pardons, someone please call me out.
I think the "LEO" labeled guns are only sold in bulk to departments, not to individual cops.

I don't know if that's true.

The LGS also is the main supplier for the LPD. Before they got to know me, whenever I'd buy a Glock, they'd ask me "Law enforcement or civilian?".

Later they explained it to me. Apparently there are guns that are inventoried specifically for law enforcement and come from Glock as such. They can be converted to civilian, but it supposedly takes a significant amount of paperwork (so much that once when they had plenty of "LEO" G27s and no Civvy G27s, I had to wait for them to get a new shipment of regular G27s before I could have one).

I know they sell LEO guns to officers that come into the store, so I know the bulk thing isn't true. There is some paperwork involved that involves the LPD when the purchase is made, but ultimately, it seems to be one at a time at least locally.

As for the lock, there is no law making it mandatory to have an internal lock on a gun. Buying it somehow would be just like buying Hornady 5.56 TAP. Their official policy is no civilian purchases, but there is no law in place enforcing that. That's why I have a bunch of it! What's S&W going to do if they find out it got into your hands? Hire a bounty hunter?

They're going to do nothing, because they don't care. It's a liability issue only. It's so they can say if they ever get sued by you for something that went wrong because there was no internal lock, "Well, we only sell those to law enforcement. Civilians are only supposed to get the regular internal lock models. We can't be held responsible for what an LEO does with his gun after the initial sale. Had you gone through the 'proper' channels, yours would have had an internal lock."

 

[ke6guj]

Later they explained it to me. Apparently there are guns that are inventoried specifically for law enforcement and come from Glock as such. They can be converted to civilian, but it supposedly takes a significant amount of paperwork (so much that once when they had plenty of "LEO" G27s and no Civvy G27s, I had to wait for them to get a new shipment of regular G27s before I could have one).

One major difference is that a "LEO" gun has not had the 11%? federal excise tax paid on it that the civilian version did have paid on it. So, in order to properly sell an LEO gun to a civilian, the FET would need to be paid. That may be the paperwork headache mentioned above.

 

[ColinthePilot]

It doesn't matter much to me, I'm not a LEO. I do find it amusing that I'm active duty military, but in my off duty life I'm not eligible to own "military weapons." At least you LEO guys get to take your toys home.