More faith promoting rumours from the Boston Globe

[friendly_iconoclast]

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/07/30/brazen_assault_weapon_shoot_out_in_dorchester_chills_police/?page=1


Brazen weapon fire chills police
Gangs obtaining more assault rifles; Victim, 12, still has bullet in leg
By Maria Cramer and Brian R. Ballou
Globe Staff / July 30, 2009

Some tidbits:

....But even more alarming: At least one of the weapons used in the gunfire was an AK-47 assault rifle, the fourth time in three weeks that one had been found or used in Boston and the seventh time since last July, when a 32-year-old man was shot dead with one....

....Nine assault rifles have been confiscated so far this year, compared with four seized in 2008. Eighteen assault rifles were found in 2007.

The vast majority of firearms used in homicides and shootings are still handguns.

But police worry about the attractiveness of assault rifles to gangs. AK-47s are much more powerful than handguns, capable of firing at least 100 yards, and can be easily converted into automatic weapons...

I've come to realize the 'easily converted' meme is to a certain population what 'Obama is not a natural-born US citizen'
is to another.

For the clue impaired: These are not assualt rifles, and no, they can't be easily converted to automatic weapons.

The Boston Globe is like a cheap handgun with a two-inch barrel- not very accurate.

Added on edit:

Take heart, fearful Hubsters! Mayor Menino will be meeting with various clergy to discuss the situation and will undoubtedly
hold one of his usual press conferences to tell us how serious all this is.

Why bother having a competent, non-racist police department when the problem obviously is caused by people in New Hampshire,
Veromont, and Maine selling guns?

[Katya Mullethov]

1. There must be some kind of link

That tenuously joins all of these incidents . Some hidden similarity . Did it happen on their way to work perhaps ?

[X_Digger]

2. Lol, AK-47 clones easy to convert, but..

..M16s ordered from the military are semi-automatic?!?!?

"The guns have surfaced as Boston police have pushed to provide more of their own officers with M16s, high powered semiautomatic rifles.

In May, the Globe reported that police had ordered about 200 M16s free of charge from the US military and made plans to train dozens of officers and arm them with the rifles."

"Bizarro say this make perfect sense. M16 are one bullet at time, AK clone has many at one!"

[TheWraith]

4. Not to mention that an M16 is about as far from "high powered" as you can get.

On the contrary, it's the weakest common centerfire rifle cartridge.

[X_Digger]

5. I've come to the conclusion that..

.. anything larger than 22lr is considered 'high powered' by the media.

[Euromutt]

9. Correct, but they're not the only ones

After all, the NRA itself has two classes of rifle competition: rimfire and "high-powered." So evidently, according to the NRA, anything heavier than .22LR is "high-powered."

[benEzra]

11. The name is an anachronism; hipower competitions were created for .30-06-class cartridges.

Eventually, when the little .223 started showing up in competitions, it was lumped in that division because ballistically that's a reasonable place for it to compete. Unfortunately, the name of the class wasn't updated, hence the anachronism.

[freebrew]

13. Should be more than that..

I always considered 'high=powered' to mean the casing was necked down. Meaning that some center fire cartridges are not high-power.
For instance the .30 carbine or the .444. Both center fire but nowhere near a high power rifle.
The .30-06, and others that the brass is larger than the bullet, may be considered 'high-power'.

[ManiacJoe]

3. Talk about bad journalism...

Doesn't anyone employ fact checkers any more?

Bummer about the girl.

[Mike K]

6. Guns

With very few exceptions those who advocate stronger guns laws and those who write them know absolutely nothing about guns, or are afraid of them, or wouldn't be inclined to defend themselves under any circumstances, or all three.

[spin]

7. Perhaps the reason gun control is losing ground...

is that people have realized that the media has absolutely no idea what they are talking about when they mention firearms.

In the areas of the country where few people own firearms, babbling bullshit might work. In the areas where gun ownership is common, the people are a lot harder to fool.

For example:

"AK-47s are much more powerful than handguns, capable of firing at least 100 yards, and can be easily converted into automatic weapons..."

Sometimes I take the time to read a good mystery novel. All too often the experience is ruined when the author says something like, "Joe thumbed the safety off on his S&W revolver..." I no longer read books by that author.

[paulsby]

8. in 20 years of law enforcement

i have never seen a converted full auto weapon.

i've seen some rare and wacky stuff. i think converted autos are slightly more prevalent than snuffalufaguses. but i have no cites for that.

[jeepnstein]

10. I've seen one, maybe two...

Back before 1986, open bolt semi autos were legal. They were also quite easy to convert. I've shot a MAC11 that was legally converted before the 1986 closure of the registry and the banning of semi auto open bolt guns. The thing was uncontrollable and doesn't see much use except for the occasional mag dump at the range. It is owned by a cop.

I also knew a fellow with an old, old, old AR15 that didn't have a forward assist. The owner lamented not paying the tax and converting it before 1986. At one time he had an M16 fire control group for it but he recently informed me that he learned about the phrase "constructive intent" and decided to chuck it in the river rather than risk legal hassles. It's a really nice AR, but I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole if it were ever offered for sale.

What passes for full-auto in the young and dumb circles these days is actually "bump firing". Since bump firing ignores good trigger control it is impossible to shoot that way accurately, or safely.

The guns the Chief is hearing in Boston, if the Chief is out on the road, are being fired by young people engaged in criminal activities like drug dealing. Sometimes they like to form small groups and give themselves names like "Bloods" or "MS13" or "Pagans". This concept is slow to catch on with some police administrators. It's almost as if the departments are afraid to admit they have a gang problem or something.

[paulsby]

12. nice post

i am also interested in this thing called a "gang". it sounds like they might be responsible for a lot of crime. i will look into this. sounds like a good topic for a Problem Solving Project (tm). if i could eliminate gangs, i'd probably be able to wrangle a written commendation or something.

[jeepnstein]

14. You might even get a medal or your picture in the paper.

[Katya Mullethov]

15. Or branded racist and summarily dismissed

IE - FIRED .

[SsevenN]

17. On bump firing

Jeep, I agree. The notion that these guys are some how obtaining full autos is far from accurate.

While it took me three seconds of browsing to find a simple lesson on bump firing.

Hell lets hope these punks don't firgure out how to "rubber band" bump fire, as it makes it possible to bump fire from the shoulder in a more controlled fashion with nothing more than a piece of rubber.

[jody]

16. Interesting that Boston with brilliant faculty at MIT and Harvard is also the fount of gross

ignorance regarding the natural, inherent, inalienable/unalienable or pre-existing right to keep and bear arms for primarily defense of self and secondarily defense of state.