Abstract
The Colt Monitor automatic rifle was introduced in early 1931 for law enforcement customers. Based on the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) adopted for U.S. military service in 1918, it was modified for use with police and security forces—hence the ‘Monitor’ moniker. The biggest users of the Monitor were the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Policía de la Capital in Argentina, and the U.S. Coast Guard. The total number of rifles produced was small, but new research indicates that more were made than the 125 previously thought to have been built. The author lists the known users and traces the largely newly discovered serial numbers of 101 Monitors. He critically examines the two known shootouts that supposedly featured a Monitor, the ‘Death of Bonnie & Clyde’ and the ‘Battle of Barrington’, both in 1934.
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Issue: Vol. XI No. 1
Published: 31 August, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52357/armax30093
Peer-reviewed?: Yes
Keywords: Colt, Automatic Rifles, Automatic Weapons, Law Enforcement, Criminal Use of Firearms
Bibliographic Information
Hans-Christian Vortisch, ‘The Colt Monitor Automatic Machine Rifle: Police & Criminal Use’, Armax: The Journal of Contemporary Arms, Vol. XI № 1 (2025), pp. 47–75, <https://doi.org/10.52357/armax30093>.
About the Author
Hans-Christian Vortisch is a German researcher specialising in the interwar period, in firearms used by criminals, and in tracking official inventories. He holds a Master’s degree in English and Scandinavian Studies from the Freie Universität in Berlin. He is currently trying to trace all sub-machine gun use by American criminals in the years between 1921 and 1939.