TexasCHLforum.com

AV8R wrote:...To this day, I can't think of anything the 92A would do particularly well, except make a lot of light and noise. In the end, I went back to the trusted G17 for carry, and a 12ga. for the car, a combination I still use today.

Hey, sometimes making a lot of light and noise is all you need. I've been fortunate enough to never have the need for any of that sort of equipment. I know very few people, except SAW gunners and a limited few others, who have ever found a use for full-auto weapons of any kind.

I'd certainly like to own a Glock 18 and may be a Beretta 93R just for the novelty of ownership. But I can't see any advantage to carrying one for my own personal defense. In the real world where real bullets have serious liability issues attached to them and you have limited ammunition to deal with a threat, it really seems a Glock 18 creates more problems than it solves. Besides, I've learned I can shoot plenty fast enough on my own to keep just about anybody's head down.

Charles L. Cotton wrote:If you have your CHL, you can carry a handgun. If you have the proper federal papers, then you can "possess" a machine gun. Combine the two and I believe you can carry a machine pistol.

I say "federal papers" because I don't believe the full auto Glocks were manufactured and/or imported into the U.S. prior to the commercial market ban in 1989. If I am correct, then the only way you can get one is if you are a Class III dealer and are using it as a demo. I'm not sure if carrying a machine pistol as a CHL would be outside the scope of a dealer demo, but that is far outside my knowledge of Class III dealers.

Chas.

P.S. Just as an aside, one of the examples I use in my seminars and classes dealing with “reckless injury to a third person� per TPC §9.05 is opening up with an MP-5 or other machine gun and hitting an innocent bystander rather than or in addition to the BG. I’m not suggesting this is what you would do, but merely possessing a machine pistol would be a problem if you did injure or kill an innocent third party, even if you didn’t use it in full auto mode.

I'd consider Charles opinion on the legality of carrying a machine pistol the final word unless the courts eventually contradict him. I honestly think the decision to do so offers more risks than benefits should you get into a shooting with that weapon. Speaking specifically to the purchase of a Glock 18/18C, this is not an easy thing to do.

Glock 18/18C pistols in circulation are all "post-'86" dealer samples. They can be imported for LE use and while a Class 3 dealer may legally purchase one as a sample, Glock has stated they will not sell anymore dealer samples. So the few existing samples on the market amongst Class 3 dealers, are all there will be for the forseeable future. Last I saw, they were trading amongst dealers for as much as $20,000 each. IIRC, you must also get a local agency's letterhead stating that you are purchasing the weapon as a demo for that agency. Again, not an easy feat unless you know a local chief LEO.

It's worth noting that machine pistols and some other smaller submachineguns were designed to fill a highly mission specific role. One example might be situations where the focus is breaking contact with a threat and using speed to get out of the danger zone rather than fighting to establish fire superiority and flanking an enemy in a protracted fight. In some of these missions, there may also a need for concealability. Machine pistols like the Glock18, Stechkin, and Beretta 93R fill this role.