Machine guns lost & the AP are idiots

Discussion of firearm-related news stories. Please use "Off Topic" for non-firearm news.
Forum rules
Do NOT post the full text of published articles. If you would like to discuss a news story please link to it and, at most, include a brief summary of the article.

Machine guns lost & the AP are idiots

Postby jshuberg on Mon Aug 18, 2014 11:41 am

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.
NRA Certified Basic Pistol Instructor
NRA Certified Personal Protection In The Home Instructor
NRA Life Member
MCPPA Certified Instructor
Gulf War Veteran
User avatar
jshuberg
 
Posts: 1983 [View]
Joined: Fri Oct 21, 2011 2:35 pm

Re: Machine guns lost & the AP are idiots

Postby Ghost on Mon Aug 18, 2014 12:16 pm

Maybe they were converted to semi-auto, not unheard of for police departments?
User avatar
Ghost
 
Posts: 8246 [View]
Joined: Wed Feb 05, 2014 8:49 pm

Re: Machine guns lost & the AP are idiots

Postby jshuberg on Mon Aug 18, 2014 1:21 pm

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.
NRA Certified Basic Pistol Instructor
NRA Certified Personal Protection In The Home Instructor
NRA Life Member
MCPPA Certified Instructor
Gulf War Veteran
User avatar
jshuberg
 
Posts: 1983 [View]
Joined: Fri Oct 21, 2011 2:35 pm

Re: Machine guns lost & the AP are idiots

Postby farmerj on Mon Aug 18, 2014 2:01 pm

Start with the chief and captain responsible for training.
We reap what we sow. In our case, we have sown our government.
Current moon phase
User avatar
farmerj
 
Posts: 4802 [View]
Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2007 9:11 am
Location: The edge of the universe in the vertex of time on the space continuum of confusion

Re: Machine guns lost & the AP are idiots

Postby Ghost on Mon Aug 18, 2014 2:28 pm

jshuberg wrote: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
User avatar
Ghost
 
Posts: 8246 [View]
Joined: Wed Feb 05, 2014 8:49 pm

Re: Machine guns lost & the AP are idiots

Postby george on Mon Aug 18, 2014 2:40 pm

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.
"If the personal freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution inhibit the government's ability to govern the people, we should look to limit those guarantees."
-- President Bill Clinton, August 12, 1993
User avatar
george
 
Posts: 696 [View]
Joined: Thu Apr 03, 2008 4:34 pm
Location: Minnesota

Re: Machine guns lost & the AP are idiots

Postby Ironbear on Mon Aug 18, 2014 3:56 pm

I have a hard time believing they were "lost"... at least in the sense that most of us think of as "lost"?
"Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just.” ~Blaise Pascal~
User avatar
Ironbear
 
Posts: 2180 [View]
Joined: Sat Jul 28, 2007 4:38 pm
Location: A nondescript planet in the Milky Way galaxy

Machine guns lost & the AP are idiots

Postby jshuberg on Mon Aug 18, 2014 4:58 pm

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?
NRA Certified Basic Pistol Instructor
NRA Certified Personal Protection In The Home Instructor
NRA Life Member
MCPPA Certified Instructor
Gulf War Veteran
User avatar
jshuberg
 
Posts: 1983 [View]
Joined: Fri Oct 21, 2011 2:35 pm

Re: Machine guns lost & the AP are idiots

Postby Snakeman721 on Wed Aug 20, 2014 2:38 pm

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.
Get off my lawn!
Snakeman721
 
Posts: 1354 [View]
Joined: Sat Jun 05, 2010 10:52 pm
Location: Minnesota

Re: Machine guns lost & the AP are idiots

Postby Ghost on Wed Aug 20, 2014 2:53 pm

Snakeman721 wrote: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/
Bob Owens wrote: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?


Snakeman721 wrote: 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
Last edited by Ghost on Wed Aug 20, 2014 3:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Ghost
 
Posts: 8246 [View]
Joined: Wed Feb 05, 2014 8:49 pm

Machine guns lost & the AP are idiots

Postby xd ED on Wed Aug 20, 2014 2:53 pm

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.'
User avatar
xd ED
 
Posts: 9238 [View]
Joined: Fri Jun 18, 2010 6:28 pm
Location: Saint Paul

Re: Machine guns lost & the AP are idiots

Postby farmerj on Wed Aug 20, 2014 3:06 pm

Someone saw "free”
We reap what we sow. In our case, we have sown our government.
Current moon phase
User avatar
farmerj
 
Posts: 4802 [View]
Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2007 9:11 am
Location: The edge of the universe in the vertex of time on the space continuum of confusion

Re: Machine guns lost & the AP are idiots

Postby Snakeman721 on Wed Aug 20, 2014 5:16 pm

Snakeman721 wrote: 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.
Get off my lawn!
Snakeman721
 
Posts: 1354 [View]
Joined: Sat Jun 05, 2010 10:52 pm
Location: Minnesota

Re: Machine guns lost & the AP are idiots

Postby redaudi on Thu Aug 21, 2014 2:04 am

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

Or did you mean 3rd burst?
O.o derp
User avatar
redaudi
 
Posts: 369 [View]
Joined: Wed Feb 23, 2011 3:07 pm

Re: Machine guns lost & the AP are idiots

Postby jshuberg on Thu Aug 21, 2014 8:14 am

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...
NRA Certified Basic Pistol Instructor
NRA Certified Personal Protection In The Home Instructor
NRA Life Member
MCPPA Certified Instructor
Gulf War Veteran
User avatar
jshuberg
 
Posts: 1983 [View]
Joined: Fri Oct 21, 2011 2:35 pm


Return to In The News

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 6 guests

cron