Machine guns lost & the AP are idiots

[jshuberg]

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/08/18/fe ... latestnews

Fox published this AP story without doing any fact checking of their own, but all of these people are drooling on their shoes idiots. They refer to a couple of military surplus M-16 rifles as "semi-automatic". These people shouldn't be reporters, they should be mowing my lawn.

The fact that a police dept (once again) lost track of a couple machine guns is also completely ridiculous. Some cop somewhere needs to do that 20 year prison sentence that anyone else would have to do.

[Ghost]

Maybe they were converted to semi-auto, not unheard of for police departments?

[jshuberg]

Actually that is unheard of.

A registered machine gun is a registered machine gun. Unless it was dewatted (made no longer a functional weapon by cutting the receiver) and then rebuilt into a new semi-auto weapon from the dewatted parts, it was originally manufactured as and registered with BATFE as a machine gun. This is extremely unlikely with an M-16, since it's an anodized aluminum receiver. No, if it was as the story indicated an M-16 rifle, it's what the military refers to as an assault rifle, and what everyone else refers to as a machine gun. And the keystone cops that are the only ones professional enough to carry guns in fact lost them. Someone with a badge should be in prison because of this, just like any other person would be.

The idiots reporting on it didn't bother to do a quick 30 second internet search to ensure they were using the correct term. They are incompetent, plain and simple.

[farmerj]

Start with the chief and captain responsible for training.

[Ghost]

Actually that is unheard of.

Some police departments convert them to semi. The gun is still a registered machine gun but that's why the reporter may have used the semi-auto terminology. I thought I read that the guns are only loaned to the police by the gov and likely somebody will be in significant trouble for this.

http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/index.php/t-73484.html

[george]

Police have purchased thousands of the full autos nation wide, last I heard the MN. State Troopers had 100 of the M16's.
I know one SP who has one in his arsenal.

[Ironbear]

I have a hard time believing they were "lost"... at least in the sense that most of us think of as "lost"?

[jshuberg]

Some police might yank the sear for liability purposes, but it's still a registered machine gun. Just because it might be temporarily configured in a semi-auto only configuration, it is still a machine gun, or fully automatic rifle. To call it a semi-auto, even in this configuration is both incorrect and deceitful.

And I don't buy the idea that most loaned military rifles are temporarily converted to semi. Perhaps a few small town agencies, but the vast majority are going to be in their original military configuration. How else are cops supposed to do dynamic entries and take out a cell of insurgent fighters armed with rocket propelled grenades, shoulder fired missiles, and IEDs?

[Snakeman721]

I was at our city council meeting a couple years ago (Coon Rapids,MN) voicing my concern that our police dept. got several (20-30) used fully automatic M16's from the DOJ free of charge except that the city paid some costly amount for shipping. The city then approved funds to train one officer as an armorer to convert most of those M16s to semi-auto only. The catch is if/when our police dept doesn't want the M16s anymore, they have to be reconverted back to their original state and sent back to the DOJ. They can't be sold or disposed of in any other fashion. My beef with the council is that if they wanted semi-auto 5.56 rifles, it would have been much cheaper to BUY THEM NEW and then the police dept. can do whatever they want with them if they decide to go to a different platform down the road. But hey, my city hasn't listened to ANYTHING I've proposed to them in the last 3 years. They like to throw money away, and now they have some fully auto M16s.

[Ghost]

I was at our city council meeting a couple years ago (Coon Rapids,MN) .

Just read about that the other day
http://www.bob-owens.com/2012/07/why-does-coon-rapids-need-machine-guns/

Can someone explain to me why officers of an affluent (medium household income, $55,550), peaceful ( just 5 murders between 2000-2010) suburb should equip their sure-to-be-undertrained officers with machine guns for street patrol?

Are they anticipating lutefisk riots?

several (20-30) used fully automatic M16's from the DOJ free of charge except that the city paid some costly amount for shipping. .

These guys only had to pay $700 for 15 of them
http://www.times-herald.com/local/newnan-police-add-m16-rifles-to-arsenal-831364

[xd ED]

When I was in the employ of an unnamed capitol city of a state where nothing is allowed, a co-worked made the observation: 'We'll spend whatever it takes to save a nickel.'

[farmerj]

Someone saw "free”

[Snakeman721]

several (20-30) used fully automatic M16's from the DOJ free of charge except that the city paid some costly amount for shipping. .

These guys only had to pay $700 for 15 of them
http://www.times-herald.com/local/newnan-police-add-m16-rifles-to-arsenal-831364[/quote]


I can't remember the exact amount, but it was over $3000 for shipping. When I asked the council about that they said it was because the shipment came in wooden crates delivered by a private secure delivery company.....no specifics.

[redaudi]

Those are some awfully old M-16s if they are fully automatic...

Or did you mean 3rd burst?

[jshuberg]

Do you think that the military would be giving away brand new weapons to LEOs?

Not that it really matters. Mine is rollmarked Colt Armalite AR15 model 1, and was manufactured in 1959. Never had a single problem...