I was wrong when I said that the Northridge Inc. web site was the most expensive on the planet. That honor belongs to the site run by WWII Impressions. I have no idea why, but there's a lot there I want. And I have no idea what I'd do with it all once I got it. Although now that I think about it...

I did manage to pick up five 20 round Thompson magazines for dirt cheap (about 1/4 of what everyone else is selling them at; we'll have to see what their quaility is like) at The Sportsman's Guide, so I may pick up one of those five-cell magazine pouches. And maybe a mussette bag. And a strap for it. And the M42 Army Airborne jump suit would be awfully nice for no real reason at all. 'Course, I'd need boots and web gear, too.

And while we're at it, there's the Short-Barrelled Rifle (SBR) permit I'd need for the shorter barrel I'd have to get for my Thompson (the original Thompsons had 10.5" barrels; BATF regulations say that you need a permit for a rifle with any barrel less than 16", which is why my newly-produce semi auto gun has a 16" barrel). I just couldn't go walking around in down-to-the-stitch authentic WWII Airborne gear carrying a Thompson M1 with a 16 inch barrel. That'd be silly! That would mean I'd have to stoop to owning an airsoft Thompson -- while there's a perfectly good "real" Thompson pining away in the closet! There's just something terribly wrong with that. The sad fact is that not only can you not own a Thompson SMG in California, you most especially cannot own one that has a really short barrel. There are, like, laws and stuff against that. We couldn't have another Bonnie and Clyde running around now, could we?

Speaking of dumbass gun laws that only serve to restrict the rights of collectors and history buffs, who knew that according to California law, the only way I could possibly possess a SBR permit is if I can prove the following:

12095. (a) If it finds that it does not endanger the public safety, the Department of Justice may issue permits initially valid for a period of one year, and renewable annually thereafter, for the manufacture, possession, transportation, or sale of short-barreled shotguns or short-barreled rifles upon a showing that good cause exists for the issuance thereof to the applicant for the permit. No permit shall be issued to a person who is under 18 years of age. (b) Good cause, for the purposes of this section, shall be limited to only the following: (1) The permit is sought for the manufacture, possession, or use with blank cartridges, of a short-barreled rifle or short-barreled shotgun, solely as props for a motion picture, television, or video production or entertainment event.

For those not paying attention to this long-winded wool-gathering, let me sum up: I'm allowed to own a Thompson with a real barrel in the state of California if I can prove that it would be possessed "solely as props for a motion picture, television, or video production or entertainment event".

You with me?

If I get all that other reproduction WWII gear and once per year either a) attend one re-enactment event, or b) video tape myself in said gear using said gun with blanks and put the movies online as "artistic shorts" or some such, I can legally own not only my Thompson but my Thompson with a short barrel. That sounds like a pretty nice deal to me.

The rub here is that I'd have to wear WWII gear while shooting the gun in CA, and bring a video camera with me while I shoot it. I suppose that since I don't shoot in CA anyway, I could get by with just packing a duffel bag with all the WWII stuff and a crappy video camera in order to transport the thing in and out of the state. I might be attending an "entertainment event" in Arizona for all anyone knows, right?

So that's a pretty expensive web site, no?