Lovejoy?

cal got the gun off lovejoy. Lovejoy is a retired cop so maybe he had some sort of contact in the military who was able to get him a specialised gun. i don't really know i'm just theorising!

Well, actually

In 1911, John M Browning, the developer of the the Colt 1911 pistol made three models of it, two in .45 ACP and one in .38 ACP (not to be confused with .380 ACP). The military refused the .38 model since they wanted a caliber of at least .45, but Colt continued to produce .38 ACP 1911's for the civilian market. I think he might have used one of those.

Correcting comment 30291

I made a mistake in comment 30291. The Colt 1911 was not made in .38 ACP until 1929 when some models were made in .38 super (an improved .38 ACP), back in 1911 there were only .45 ACP models around... however, Colt 1911's were first avaible on the civilian market in march 1912 I think, but I could be mistaken on the exact date, but 'government' 1911's were avaible somewhere in that year, but I don't think he could have gotten his pistol customized in such a short time.

Money makes the world go round....

If you had enough money, and the right connections with the right people, you could probably get anything you wanted. Even a customized Colt 1911 pistol in 1912. Who knows, Lovejoy might have stolen it, or paid to have it stolen, then had it customized special so that you couldn't recognize it as being stolen.

Experimental Only

The Colt 1911 was still in "experimental" status with the U.S. Military. As a result, there were very few in existance in April 1912, and every one of them was kept locked up on Army bases. There was simply NO WAY a civilian, even a wealthy and well-connected one, could have gotten his hands on one of the guns back in 1912. Think about how experimental military weapons are handled today- it really wasn't all that different in 1912.