Cops At Risk As Criminals Use More Assault Weapons

South Florida Sun-Sentinel ^ | Sept 16, 2007 | Robert Nolin

[flattorney]

An extraordinarily violent day in South Florida -- which began with the shooting of four police officers south of Miami, and ended with the death of the gunman in Pembroke Pines -- brought home a disturbing fact of criminal life: More offenders are taking to the streets with high-powered assault weapons. "You can buy an assault rifle for about $200," said Carlos Baixauli, a special agent with the Miami district office of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. "That gives you a lot of firepower with the flick of a finger."

[Uri’el-2012]

I think they are Moose Limbs

[Darksheare]

Wonder if they’ll figure out that the crims don’t buy them legally..

[mysterio]

Let me guess : a semi automatic 22 hunting rifle is an “assault” weapon.

[EGPWS]

"You can buy an assault rifle for about $200," said Carlos Baixauli, a special agent with the Miami district office of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

That doesn't come with the mindset to become a criminal as a requirement of the sale.

That has to be acquired elsewhere.

[Puppage]

Cops At Risk As Criminals Use More Assault Weapons

Here's a thought....if you want a safe job, don't be a cop.

[holymoly]

This is one of the most blatantly dishonest articles I have read in a very long time.

I.E.:

Meant for war, or to be fired from the hip, assault rifles such as the notorious AK-47, the favorite of guerrilla fighters around the world, can spit a lethal spray of up to 600 rounds a minute in full automatic mode.

Possibly. But the AK-47 "look-alikes" (e.g. WASR-10) sold in the U.S. are not "assault rifles". They are semi-automatic only. You pull the trigger, and they fire one round, and one round only.

Comparing them to true (selective-fire) assault rifles is dishonest, despicable, and reprehensible.

Their potent punch leaves officers equipped with traditional handguns at a disadvantage.

This line is obviously an attempt to deceive the reader into believing that these "assault rifles" are extraordinarily powerful. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The 7.62x39 cartridge, chambered in such firearms as the true AK-47, WASR-10, SKS Carbine, Ruger Mini-30, etc., is roughly equal to the .30-30 Winchester in power & performance.

When measuring foot-pounds of energy, the 7.62x39 cartridge is barely half as powerful as the .30-06

[4yearlurker]

Here we go again. I’m not giving up my second amendment rights because somebody wants to be a cop. I’m sure there are a lot of cops who would love that to happen.

[Squantos]

Little Bobby Nolin is a blithering presstitutional idiot pandering to the gun grabbers if he believes for one minute what he wants you to read for five minutes..........

Have him tell us again why the criminals will elect to follow “his” pet issue laws and not the others ?

Doom on him and his......their incremental BS against the law abiding citizens and their coddling of real criminals is obvious and insane.

[rickdylan]

The thing that grabs me about America's gun laws, aside from the fact that they're basically all unconstitutional, is the basic inanity of them. "Assault weapons" are a case in point. There are basically two definitions of an assault weapon, i.e. a political and a military definition.

The political definition is basically just anything which, on a scale of one to ten for being scary looking to demokkkrats, goes much over a six.

The real military definition is more complex. Most assume a weapon has to be at least semi-automatic and preferably automatic to qualify but, in real life, that's not really necessary. In fact in real life, most people attempting to fire any military weapon in full auto mode will never hit anything with it.

What you really want and need for an assault weapon are things which work well in assault situations:

• Big enough to injure a human adversary badly enough to take him out of the battle.
• Otherwise fairly small, easy to load up with lots of ammo and carry lots of ammo around.
• Accurate.
• Quick (aimed) follow on shots. This eliminates the idea of taking 600 meter shots with an assault rifle. One guy in the squad (designated marksman or sniper) carries something which CAN do that.
• Light, easy to manipulate.

Add to that list the ideas that it would be good if the thing never jammed and were easy to clean. Add all of that up, and what I come up with is a lot different from the pictures you usually see:

That's basically a Henry lever-action rifle in 22 wmr caliber, which is basically a $330 item on Gunbroker or at BassPro or Gander Mountain. Couple that with some of the hotter WMR ammo and you have a 40-gr bullet moving just over 2000 fps which can be totally cleaned by pulling one of your string type cleaners through the bore.

That's about what I'd want for an "assault rifle" in today's world. You'd have to figure some way to make the feed tubes detachable/quick-change, but that's not a major engineering feat.

[MrEdd]

The following is a complete assembly of the characteristics required to comprise an assault weapon within the legal profession, and the dead tree media.

[Wonder Warthog]

"Comparing them to true (selective-fire) assault rifles is dishonest, despicable, and reprehensible."

Which, of course, describes the denizens of the BATFE with complete accuracy.

[Larry Lucido]

Careful, that could put an eye out.

[Still Thinking]

Cops at Risk as More Criminals Use Assault Weapons

Truth at risk as more "journalists" use cliches.

[Squantos]

LOL....yep !

[freema]

Shoot! Ya gotta point!

[sig226]

I would like to know where one can buy an Ak-47, even a crappy one, for $200. Is the author is referring to the SKS rifle, which was exempted from the Clinton Ban and the New Jersey ban? So another anti gun editor, and another anti gun government official, are full of it. What else is new?

[EGPWS]

What else is new?

Nothing new, just the same ol' political rhetoric without any insistence by the MSM to quantify it.

[Travis McGee]

I wonder what the record is for putting rounds down range with a semi-auto rifle, changing mags every 30 rounds?

I'll buy a steak dinner for anybody who can get off 600 rounds that way, in a minute. One trigger pull, one shot, no external devices or illegal full-auto mods.

And lets stipulate that all rounds must hit the side of a barn at 100 feet.

[Travis McGee]

I would like to know where one can buy an Ak-47, even a crappy one, for $200. Is the author is referring to the SKS rifle, which was exempted from the Clinton Ban and the New Jersey ban? So another anti gun editor, and another anti gun government official, are full of it. What else is new?

Picky, picky, picky! You see, here's the deal. An SKS shoots AK-47 ammo. Ergo, and SKS = an AK-47.

(Remember, reporters don't know shotguns from rifles.)