Town moves to sell their rare early 1921 Colt Tommy gun (VIDEO)

By Chris Eger

Jenkins, Kentucky bills themselves as a “city built on coal,” and one byproduct of its early days is a Thompson submachine gun used to protect the mine’s payroll.
Built in 1912 by the Consolidation Coal Company (now Consol Energy) and named after one of their major investors, the town later picked up the early Thompson, which was advertised in the 1920s as an “Anti-bandit gun,” as added security for the burgeoning mining operation.
The Auto-Ordnance Company advertised their Thompson submachine guns in the days before the National Firearms Act was a thing as an “Anti-bandit gun,” and sold them commercially to adventurers, banks, and businesses in addition police and the military.
“The story we’ve always been told is they use it to guard the payroll when the money would come in on the train,” Jenkins Mayor Todd Depriest told LEX 18.
Now, with the gun long ago turned over to the local police, city officials are looking to sell the NFA-regulated mega collectible rather than let it continue to rest in retirement at City Hall.
“It is sentimental, and there are some folks who would rather not do it,” said Depriest. “For what it would ever be used for, it’s too big and too heavy

Source: Guns.com