"In Grigny, south of Paris, police were lured into a housing estate and attacked with pellet guns, rocks and petrol bombs."
Thank you for clearing something up for me. Someone insisted that they were using 'shotguns' instead of pellet guns. And while the Malitov Cocktails are lethal weapons in their own right, putting things in perspective, it appears this riot doesn't have much lethal intent against police-- yet.
Why should it???? They are getting away with plunder and pillage and France is doing nothing about it? Why screw up a good thing????
You don't seem to understand that a modern pellet gun can be somewhere between quite damaging and lethal. I have two, each with 1000 fps muzzle velocity, close to that of a .22. When a .177 pellet hits a telephone book it penetrates about .75", mushrooms, and does more damage the farther it goes in. By the time it comes to rest, it has usually disintegrated. If it hit a human in the face at a fairly close range, there's a good chance it could penetrate his skull and kill him. There are also one or two fatal accidents a year in this country where one kid fires a pellet gun at another at close range, hits the victim's head, and kills him.
I'll grant that a pellet gun doesn't have the wallop a .22 or larger firearm does. However, as noted above, they are not toys and can be used to do a lot of damage by someone with a criminal intent.
"Someone insisted that they were using 'shotguns' instead of pellet guns."
Shotguns that are loaded with any size shot are sometimes referred to as "pellet" guns.
Someone insisted that they were using 'shotguns' instead of pellet guns.
This is the first reference to 'pellet guns' (French riots) that I have read. All other references have used the term 'shotgun'.
Shotguns are sometimes referred to as 'pellet guns'--they do shoot pellets. And, keep in mind the possibility of inexact translations and cultural differences in term useage.
Beyond that, it is entirely possible that both 'shotguns' and 'pellet guns' have been used by the rioters.
And while the Malitov Cocktails are lethal weapons in their own right, putting things in perspective, it appears this riot doesn't have much lethal intent against police-- yet.
I'm not so sure about that. A story that I read last night referred to a French police officer recovering an unexploded device...a soda bottle w/ a 'clear liquid' and nails inside. That's not exactly a Molotov cocktail--that's an 'IED'.
Maybe it's time the police started SHOOTING BACK!