Homeless Man's Black Market Submachine Guns and Improvised Silencer

The LA times has an article about a homeless man who was found in possession of two submachine guns a couple of magazines, a couple of pistols and an improvised suppressor.  From the picture it appears that the two submachine guns are a reactivated/remanufactured Sten in 9mm and a reactivated/remanufactured vz.26, which is normally chambered in 7.62x25 caliber, the common East block pistol and submachine gun round that is nearly identical to the 7.65x25 Mauser cartridge. 

This ad shows the deactivated vz.26 as being available in the European Union for 95 Euros.  Parts kits have been available in the United States, but do not included an intact receiver, only stubs from the receiver tube, for $62.  Here is a link to a person who hoped to rebuild one of the parts kits into a legal semi-auto pistol.  He expected to spend about $600 on it in 2013.

The vz.26 has a large oil filter attached to the muzzle.  These are reported to make effective improvised suppressors.  The first round fired creates a hole for the rounds to follow.  It is questionable how effective it would be on the 7.62x25 round, which has a supersonic velocity of nearly 1500 feet per second. 

The LA Sheriff's Department, which took the picture, reported that the Sten and the vz.26 were fully functional.  You can see two loaded magazines for the vz.26 loaded with the 7.62x25 bottleneck rounds in the magazines.  I can only see three handguns, a Ruger MK1 that has an AR-15 flash suppressor attached to the barrel, an Rohm RG-10 .22 revolver or close facsimile, and Cobray model DD .410/.45 Colt Derringer.  The Cobray was offered in kit form about 20 years ago.

The department reported that there were two improvised suppressors; perhaps they included the AR-15 flash suppressor as an improvised sound suppressor.

I do not see a fourth mentioned handgun; it may well be outside the picture frame.

These reactivated/re-manufactured subguns should really count as homemade guns.  They almost certainly have no serial numbers.  Very likely the Cobray derringer has no serial number either.   Because the firearms were found in the possession of a convicted felon, a prohibited possessor, the firearms were likely created specifically for the black market.

©2015 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
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