St. Valentine's Day Massacre

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St. Valentine Day Massacre

On this day back in 1929, a gang war in Chicago resulted in the massacre of four reputed gang members and two of their accomplices in the infamous St. Valentine Day massacre. The fall out of this gangland slaughter was the 1934 National Firearms Act (NFA), which did not restrict the ownership of fully automatic weapons, the type used in the massacre, but created a tax evasion trap for such weapons and made ownership of popular guns like the Thompson machine gun cost prohibitive. This law was included in the Gun Control Act of 1968 and followed by the Firearm Owners Protection Act (more gun control veiled in a misleading title) that ensured only the most wealthy in our society can posses automatic weapons.

Today, as we sip champagne, nibble on chocolate and gaze into our lover’s eyes, we need to keep in mind how a murderous act by criminals 84-years ago today, resulted in only rich elitists being able to own machine guns in the name of public safety. Think of NFA as a St. Valentines Day card from your government that just “loves” to step on your civil rights.

You can express your love for the 2nd Amendment by making a donation to the Assaulted: Civil Rights Under Fire Kickstarter campaign fund and making sure that this film gets completed. We’re closing in our goal but we’re not there yet. We need your support – today!

Kris

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It's worth noting that only two Thompson's were used, one of which had an interesting lineage (originally purchased by a possibly-corrupt Deputy Sheriff):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Valentine's_Day_massacre

The two Thompson submachine guns (serial numbers 2347 and 7580) found in Fred Dane’s (an alias for Fred Burke) Michigan bungalow were personally driven to the Chicago coroner’s office by the Berrien County District Attorney. Ballistic expert Calvin Goddard tested the weapons and determined that both had been used in the massacre. One of them had also been used in the murder of Brooklyn mob boss Frankie Yale, which confirmed the New York Police Department’s long-held theory that Burke, and by extension Al Capone, had been responsible for Yale's death.

Gun No. 2347 had been originally purchased on November 12, 1924 by Les Farmer, a deputy sheriff in Marion, Illinois, which happened to be the seat of Williamson County. Marion and the surrounding area were then overrun by the warring bootleg factions of the Shelton Brothers and Charlie Birger. Deputy Farmer was documented as having ties with Egan’s Rats, based 100 miles (160 km) away in St. Louis. By the beginning of 1927 at the very latest, the weapon had wound up in Fred Burke's possession. It is possible he had used this same gun in Detroit’s Milaflores Massacre on March 28, 1927.

Gun No. 7580 had been sold by Chicago sporting goods owner Peter von Frantzius to a Victor Thompson (also known as Frank V. Thompson) in the care of the Fox Hotel of Elgin, Illinois. Some time after the purchase the machine gun wound up with James "Bozo" Shupe, a small-time hood from Chicago’s West Side who had ties to various members of Capone’s outfit.

Just from doing a bit of digging into the history behind some of the 1920s-1930s era gangsters, it seems like the majority of the automatic weapons that they used (Thompsons and BARs) originated from government hands, which actually makes sense given the retail price of these at the time.