They were looking for illegal guns; clearly they found some.
The one-day gun buyback program in Los Angeles this last Wednesday was the most successful the city has had since they started the program. The Los Angeles Times reports that a total of 2,037 firearms were collected, including two rocket launchers and 75 assault weapons. LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said,
Those are weapons of war, weapons of death. These are not hunting guns. These are not target guns. These are made to put high-velocity, extremely deadly, long-range rounds downrange as quickly as possible, and they have no place in our great city.
Rocket launchers are without question “weapons of war” and really have no place in the general populace. Although I have learned that if it’s just the launch tube, it’s not such a big deal (the disposable launch tube is not designed to be used more than once). If there was a rocket inside, it would be a very big deal. People do turn in (or find) tubes for anti-tank rockets every once in a while.
Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said at a news conference on Thursday morning,
These weren’t just guns that weren’t functioning any more. These were serious guns — semiautomatic weapons, guns that have no place on the streets of Los Angeles or any other city.
According to Chief Beck the weapons collected by the LAPD which include 901 handguns, 698 rifles, and 363 shotguns along with the rocket launchers, will be melted down and destroyed.
Photo: AP/File
This is a TRAINING facsimile of a REAL AT4 (M136).. it cant fire ANYTHING!
I really wish the media would do some damn research before coming up with such crazy ass stories!
Hank. My enlisted MOS was 11B –light weapons Infantry–and my commissioned MOS was 71542–Airborne Infantry Small Unit Leader.
I never wanted to carry the zippo. I mean, it’s heavy and nobody likes it, the other side or anybody on your side who might be within fifty meters.
Let the air guys deliver that stuff. Then they can go home and have a beer, and sleep in a bed and have potable water and a hot meal and somebody else watching the perimeter….. Envy is not a pretty sight, even when it’s me.
Richard,
I was lucky enough to be a 54E (534), now 74D. Chemical operations specialist. So never toted anything fancy. I do know how to fire and maintain the M2 and M9 flamethrowers. They were Chemical Corps weapons. I can mix their fuel, too (or could.) Some of that stuff was 50 years ago.
Hank
Hank. As usual with do-it-all items, doing any one thing is non-optimal. However, I’ve fired the M14 squad auto version and it hummed along pretty nicely. It’s not just the M14 on full auto. It has a straight-line stock whjch reduces muzzle rise. If fired from a bipod–as a BAR was or supposed to be–it does a pretty good job of being a squad auto. As a purist, and big enough to carry the thing and a lot of ammo, I favored the M14. Among other things, you can hit, or do effective area fire at 1000 meters, making it… Read more »
Enlisting in 62, I was right at the end of the M-1 Garand and the BAR. I actually fired expert with the M-1 Carbine at Ft. Lewis in 63. I loved the M-14, which came in shortly afterward. We had them in Korea in 64. I’ve heard that the M-14 hvybbl (equivalent of today’s SAW or the BAR) was worthless on full auto, and allowed for the adoption of the M-16, unfortunately for the people who were armed with the first ones in Vietnam (because they jammed with the early powder and non-chrome receivers.) I’ve never even seen one.
Hank. Good book on Korea, “This Kind of War”, got a profound, deeply moving, insightful review on Amazon. Apparently the wonderfulness of the 3.5 was known to the US Army, but wasn’t shipped to Korea in time. Google up “task force smith” if you want to see what shaving pennies costs. When I was at Benning, we had a demo on how much better than the 3.5 was the M72 LAW, a one-shot weapon. Big, big diff. Anyway, afaik, the sturmgewhatsit is the first assault rifle. Necked-down round, full auto, smaller than a full-size rifle, shorter effective range and hitting… Read more »
Couple of hours ago, CNN was going on about “rocket launchers”. You think they know better and hope their target audience doesn’t?
Or are they idiots?
The 3.5″ rocket launcher I had was actually multi-use. They wouldn’t let me gun the M-60 because I had the magic ability of jamming any automatic weapon I fired. We were actually in an artillery battalion S-3 shop, so these would have been weapons to be used only if we were being overrun (Korea 1964.)
Richard, I still want to know what “assault rifle” means, too. Does it mean “scary looking rifle,” like the M-16 or AK-47? By definition, almost, “Sturmgewehr” means automatic rifle– the concept was that Germans and Eastern European boys didn’t grow up as marksmen, so the needed a “bullet hose” to compensate. No matter how scary looking, these weapons cannot be automatic ones in the United States.
The 2nd ammendment isn’t about hunting, it is about the right to protect us from/overthrowing the government when they become too oppressive. Like they are now.
Yes, when it comes to MY rights, I will let you know what “has no place.”
You don’t need to try to tell me what rights I “need.”
Because, honestly, no one “needs” to blog (or comment thereon). But, we have the right to.
In short, my RIGHTS are not limited by my NEEDS.
-Jut
I’d just like to point out that the rocket launcher shown in the photo appears to be a training version that cannot fire a real rocket. The real version that does fire real rockets does not have that yellow stripe around it. You can see the yellow stripe just behind the police officer’s head in the photo. If it has the yellow stripe, it’s not a real rocket launcher.
You can see a photo of a real version of that rocket launcher here (no yellow stripe):
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/m136-AT4-1.jpg
And there is also an “airsoft” version which fires a foam dart:
http://img.redwolfairsoft.com/upload/product/img/GM-A0007-1L.jpg
You’ll note the four stars on the collar of the guy holding up the disposable–already disposed of–tube. He’s smart enough to know better. But he thinks a sufficient number of somebody else can be fooled.
HE’S RIGHT.
These events are always street junk for money. Not many assault rifles, though, which is good, since they don’t account for many murders, compared to pistols. So, this is a good thing, presuming the pistols work and all.
Let’s see, disposable launcher inert rockets? Sounds like someone turned his wall decoration into grocery money.
Hey that takes me back. As I recall, it needs to be boresighted first, though.
Actually, no, it didn’t. A rocket launcher is a device which can launch a rocket. These were, as the writer observes, discarded single-use tubes. Now, had they come up with an RPG launcher, that would be a big deal.
This is the usual for buy-back programs; people making money off street junk.
But the cops and the pols have to make it look important.
Let’s see. Shotguns and pistols. Not sending deadly, high-powered rounds down range. They are, however, responsible for far more homicides than assault rifles, so I guess this is something. Presuming they work.