Gunmakers have long catered to individual markets. Today we have shotgun makers who concentrate on elegant hinge-break SXS shotguns for clay shooters, while others make camouflage pumps for hunters, and still others market black tactical jobs to those who ride C-130s to work. Well, in the 1970s there was a guy in Connecticut who came about with the idea to make a police carbine that had a whole gamut of neat little features that no one else was making. That man was G.J. Fox and his gun was the Tac-1 Police Carbine.
In 1971, Gerard Jerry Fox patented (US #3735519) a special purpose gun that immediately distinguished itself from the pack of carbines by incorporating a couple of head turning features. Marketed to the law enforcement, security, and corrections community, Fox’s semi-auto carbine was unlike any either before or since.
To keep the community safe in case the gun was captured, lost, or stolen, it had a combination lock that blocked the sear from firing. Yes, that’s right, a three-wheeled combination lock that could be set from 000 (factory default) to 999, like on a bicycle security chain. Additionally, a battery cell could be fit in the buttstock that powered a cattle-prod type riot control baton capable of delivering an electric shock.
And these were just bonus features; let’s look at the gun itself!
Read the rest in my column at GUNS.com
Yes, thats a combination lock on the side of the gun….
