Colt Firearms Collector

Colt Archives Factory Letter

For over sixty years, the firearms dealer, 'Colosimo's Police Equipment', wasn't quite a Philadelphia institution, but its wares and operations were later reviled and the store closed by the Feds in 2009.  It was a longstanding and conveniently located gun shop a few blocks north of the Police Administration Building, and a few blocks east of the Fraternal Order of Police lodge,  Colosimo's became the one-stop shopping source for city police officers during the 1960s and 1970s.

"The first gun I ever bought, I bought from Colosimo's, 43 years ago," said Michael Chitwood, superintendent of the Upper Darby Police Department and previously a city homicide detective. "My son's first gun was bought at Colosimo's by my father." 

From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

After more than forty years, Jim Colosimo closed the shop in 2008 as part of a federal plea agreement last month over "straw" purchases, where a person with clean record legally buys a gun, then passes it to someone barred from making purchases, such as a convicted felon.  The store had been in business for so long, and in recent years survived such controversy over gun sales, that even those familiar with the business were surprised it would actually shut down.

Colosimo's had been a fixture in the gun trade in Philadelphia long before Philadelphia streets became awash in blood and handguns, before the federal government sent informants inside to buy, Colosimo's was a well-known, respected business - and its owners part of the color of the city.

In the late 1960s, Jim Colosimo cruised to work on a Honda 450 motorcycle, boasting of its fun and convenience at a time when people thought only Hell's Angels rode bikes.  He and his brother, Dominic, identified motorcycles as the next big thing and started Colosimo's Honda Sales Inc.  Dominic was politically connected, a close friend of Frank Rizzo, involved not just in the gun and motorcycle trade but in a food company and a Florida restaurant.  Rizzo made sure that Jim Colosimo became treasurer of the Democratic City Committee, and appointed him to the city Planning Commission.

(Edited version from the Philadelphia Inquirer)