09/13/2026
In 1917, a machine gun had a catalog number and an order blank.
Sears, Roebuck and Company had already convinced the country that anything could arrive by mail. Clothes. Tools. Plows. Entire houses, delivered in numbered pieces down to the nails.
Then America entered the First World War, and Sears printed a special catalog called Military Equipment. It was addressed to officers of the United States Army, members of the Aviation Corps and officials of military schools. Relatives and friends of men in the service were invited to order from it too.
Inside were the things you would expect. Uniform coats. Trousers. Leggings. Puttees. Shaving kits. Compasses. Wrist watches with luminous dials.
And then, a few pages in, C**t handguns.
And a C**t machine gun. Eight hundred and sixty five dollars. Shipping weight about 180 pounds. Cartridges extra, 100 rounds of .30 caliber for $7.50.
No license. No federal registration. No background check. The National Fi****ms Act that would regulate machine guns did not exist yet and would not arrive until 1934.
Sears was not promising to parachute a 180 pound weapon into a trench in France. Its overseas parcel service capped packages at 20 pounds, and the gun shipped from a factory in the East, not from the warehouse in Chicago. But the page was real, the price was real, and the order blank came with the book.
America did not need an add to cart button.
It had a catalog and a pencil.
