Readers may remember I wrote a few days ago that criminal gangs were getting their hands on stolen US military weapons. A news report today provided frightening confirmation about how easy it is for even a young teenager to get hold of them.
Two people, including a 13-year-old boy, were arrested Friday on suspicion of possessing a military-grade weapon believed to have been stolen.
. . .
Three weapons were recovered, including an inert M136 AT4 “LAW” anti-tank weapon, a b.b. gun rifle and a replica 9mm hand gun, police said.
There's more at the link.
Some may quibble that the AT4 was 'inert' (i.e. a training weapon, not capable of actually being fired), and the handgun was a 'replica' (ditto). That's no comfort. You see, if that young man had actually pointed either of those 'weapons' at the police, they'd have had no choice but to open fire on him. (They can't just stand there and wait for him to fire, in order to find out whether the 'weapons' are real or fake. That's a good way to get killed.) If they had opened fire, they'd probably have loosed off more than a few rounds - witness how often that happens in police shootings, including one incident discussed in these pages last month. The odds are pretty good that the majority of those rounds would have missed the suspect, thereby possibly endangering passers-by or those in nearby buildings. A bullet is no respecter of persons. Once fired, it'll take out anybody in its path with indiscriminate efficiency.
If this 13-year-old had a training AT4 and a replica handgun on him, how many of his peers and classmates have similar toys? And how long will it be before their discovery leads to a less happy and rather more lethal outcome? For that matter, how many of their slightly older teenage buddies have the real things?
Peter
7 comments:
Hysteria, plain and simple. I predict a huge problem when the adults come back to work Monday and realize they've just put a kid into jail for playing Army with surplus toys.
That so-called "military-grade" weapon everyone is hyperventilating about? That's an expended launcher. you can't do anything with that, whatsoever. The cops that arrested the kid for possessing it? They're going to have some 'splainin to do when their bosses find out that such things are sold openly and legally. Owning one is about as illegal as having a fired cartridge case, and about as threatening. If you get close, you can see that there's no there there--The damn thing is empty, a hollow tube.
Lawsuits for false arrest are likely in the offing. These things are not illegal, in any way, shape or form. The replica 9mm is reported to be an airsoft or pellet gun in some venues.
Idiot cops, with breathless media support. The DA is going to have kittens when he finds out this made national news, tomorrow.
@Anonymous at 12:12 a.m.: No, it's not 'hysteria, plain and simple'. As I tried to explain in my comments, a 'fake' weapon can lead to consequences every bit as deadly as a 'real' weapon. In my days as an active pastor, I had to help a police officer who shot a youth who was wielding a replica firearm. He felt ghastly about it, and it affected him for years afterwards . . . but that didn't help the youth concerned, or his family.
Furthermore, the article appears to indicate that the inert AT4 was, in fact, stolen from the US armed forces. Possession of stolen property is the least of the charges this youngster and/or his parent(s) and/or guardian(s) are likely to face.
Come to think of it all that 13 year old had to do would be wait 4 years, get mama to sign her approval and join the army. Then he could play with the real deal......legally.
Read more about what went on before you post, I'd say. The Army did not tell the cops that specific expended launch tube was stolen--The cops called someone at a military facility, said they had an M136, and that someone "told them it was military property". Which isn't exactly an establishment of probable cause for trumpeting about "stolen military weapons". When I was assigned to Fort Irwin back around 2000, I know for a fact that the local surplus store in Barstow was selling expended launchers as militaria for whatever they could get. The damn things are all over the place.
Some idiot cops are going to get hammered for this, come the time the adults get handed this. Or, at least, they should be. It being California, it wouldn't be surprising to me that the kid goes to jail for life for giving someone in law enforcement the vapors...
They may be inappropriate toys for a 13 year old, particularly unsupervised, but setting aside the possibility that they were stolen from the Army (seems unlikely), all these things can be purchased on the internet, so why get so concerned about it?
@ Peter: It seems like you've got a troller here who is "too smart" to be a cop himself. Obviously he knows so much more about the laws and what the military does/does not allow off-post. AT-4 launch tubes--even those used for training--are serial-numbered and if someone in authority in military law enforcement says "it's ours and it's stolen", well that gives police the probable cause needed for the arrest. And I can vouch that the military doesn't sell such things or allow people to take them away these days no matter what "Anonymous" remembers from over a decade ago. But it doesn't matter. He just wants to bash on the cops and he'll keep doing so, probably out of envy or jealousy because they have the job that he wishes he could have got.
Heck, "Anonymous" is probably George Zimmerman.
But I agree with you 100% re: the replica guns. They get kids shot just like real ones do, which is why some states have specifically outlawed minors possessing them.
No, AT-4 launchers are just fiberglass tubes and an expended tube can't be reloaded. They are NOT controlled devices and can be bought as surplus. Just Google it.
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