Smith&Wesson M&P45 LE/MIL Models

tacstar

Inactive
I was curious as to why M&P 45 307706 & various other models are designated for LE & military sales only.

I have seen used LE/military designated models for sale to civilans online from various vendors.

Why are these LE/military only models available to general public?
 
tacstar said:
I was curious as to why M&P 45 307706 & various other models are designated for LE & military sales only.
Where are you getting your information?

The S&W product page for this pistol doesn't explicitly say that it's for LE and military sales only. The webpage merely says that it is an "LE" model.

I'm not familiar with S&W's current LE lineup, but the usual deal with "LE" models from most gunmakers is that they include a few extras (in this case, night sights and 3 magazines rather than 2), while a few items included for civilian sales are omitted, often the fancy lockable plastic case and the gun lock. I've only ever seen one LE M&P9 for sale, on the used rack at a pawn shop about 5 years ago, and it came in a plain brown corrugated cardboard box rather than the familiar M&P-logo black plastic case.
tacstar said:
Why are these LE/military only models available to general public?
S&W presumably doesn't require its dealers to sell them only to LE.
 
Yes, I purchased Law enforcement models from HK and Berretta over the years and the difference was extra magazine and night sites. Maybe there are some guns that actually have different internal features like the SIG Navy gun, but even that is really mostly marketing as corrosion resistant internals are not a big advantage for most users.
 
Footnote to my prior post...

...a few items included for civilian sales are omitted, often the fancy lockable plastic case and the gun lock.
FWIW 18 USC § 922(z) requires an FFL to provide a "Secure Gun Storage or Safety Device" when transferring a handgun to a non-licensee; this is why new handguns generally come with a cheap cable lock in the box. However, this provision does NOT apply when the recipient is LE.

Consequently, if a dealer is selling an LE model to a member of the general public, he/she usually has to come up with a gun lock. This creates a minor headache for some dealers, but it's really no different than what happens when selling a used handgun. It's just one more thing that the transferring FFL needs to take into account.
 
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