Posted on 01/16/2015 2:02:25 PM PST by wtd
Rocket launcher recovered during investigation in Brooklyn
Updated 26 mins ago BUSHWICK -- Police say a rocket launcher was recovered in Brooklyn as part of an ongoing investigation Friday.
The weapon was seized by the NYPD from a home on Knickerbocker Avenue in the Bushwick section. Initially, authorities said the weapon was operational, but it is actually inert.
Investigators have charged 41-year-old Juan Garcia with weapons and drug possession.
Authorities say an investigation that started in the Bronx led police to Garcia's address in Brooklyn.
Along with the rocket launcher, brass knuckles and drug paraphernalia were also recovered at the apartment.
Officials say the rocket is pre-packaged and built into the weapon, so once it is fired, it cannot be reloaded. The recovered weapon had already been fired.
The launcher is a M72-LAW, a once-revolutionary light anti-tank weapon used in the military starting in the 1960s. Map My News
So he essentially had an empty tube.
When Dad used to sail his boat in the Caribbean, he kept a spent LAW on board, just in case someone decided they wanted HIS boat. (I do NOT know where he got it. I do not WANT to know!)
I LOVED firing those things at tanks during training ops back in the day. They blowed up REAL GOOD. :)
I used to see LAW tubes at gun shows. They are not reloadable.
“So he essentially had an empty tube.”
Yep. A fiberglass tube, basically. I have no idea where you would get such a thing. Part of the M72 training used to be that you were supposed to smash the tube once you used the rocket so that no one could use the tube as a mortar later.
When rocket launchers are outlawed only outlaws will have rocket launchers.
Used to see them at gun shows all the time. Don't remember what they cost, but wasn't much. Kinda cool to look at, but really worthless.
During a news brief news break on Hannity’s radio show (where I first heard about it) the reporter suggested the tube was operable (did not elaborate).
You used to be able to get spent tubes sy Army/Navy stores. Big deal.
“(I do NOT know where he got it. I do not WANT to know!)”
Pretty sure you can get them at any military surplus store or show, they aren’t illegal to own or sell.
Rocket launchers are legal. It’s the ROCKETS that pose a problem!!!
Hannity,,,, ain’t exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer.
I was just protecting myself from the NSA that lurks here. ;)
Hannity didn’t report it...it was a reporter during the news break for the radio station in NYC (770 WABC).
Already fired?
But did it hit anything?
Any good grunt would want one for Xmas. ;h
Uses?
Make a bong out of it.
Make a moose gun.
Make your local police chief’s butts chaff.
Yeah, it was dangerous. The heavy spring could break, injuring whomever tried to cock it, or assuming the spring held, it probably could toss a brick or rock a ways.
Damn, that's near where I was born. Of course, at that time, "The Honeymooners" was being broadcast live on DuMont...
I know the neighborhood well. In the 70s when I taught there it was a pit of guns, drugs and gangs. Lately it’s been gentrified by hipsters spilling over from Williamsburg. Maybe this guy was trying to frighten the incoming hipsters into leaving. I know lots of locals who survived the pre Giuliani days have not been pleased by the rising rents, and influx of coffee shops and eateries at the expense of bodegas and other establishments that served the old community.
They used to sell them at gun shows out here in the West.
another one of these... it’s a spent, empty and disposable tube... probably an AT4, they seem to pop up once in a while. You might be able to make a potato cannon out of it if you were inventive enough. the airsoft version is probably more dangerous.
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