[olddog]

I always loved and wanted a Thompson. Back in the day they were reasonably priced, but with a young family, I limited myself to hunting weapons. Looking back it would have been a good investment.

I was at a local hunting clubs swap meet, back in the early 1980's, and ran into a fellow with a Thompson on his shoulder. I asked him what he wanted for it and he said $200. I was going to buy it, for that price, so I was looking it over. It had been notched for the 50 round drum magazine. Then I looked, and it was a full auto. I told him it was full auto and he said yes it is. I said that requires a class 3 FFL and a tax stamp. He claimed it didn't. I stepped back and looked at his clothes. A bit too nice for the crowd we were in. I handed the gun back to him, and said as loud as I could "you are a BATF officer looking to entrap someone." He left without saying a word.

So I could of had one for 200 bucks, but I would have been arrested shortly thereafter.