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Assault Weapons Hysteria Local

WATE gets in on the PSH:

Knoxville police are coming across more high-capacity weapons.

Lt. Greg Hoskins says he finds one last week particularly disturbing.

“On December 23rd we stopped a car with four teens inside, one just 15 years old. They had a semi automatic assault rifle, they had several handguns and magazines for those handguns,” said Hoskins.

He says there have been several similar situations.

“We have traffic stops and find rounds or magazines or weapons in cars where there is a group of people in the car.”

In the past, he says police would find someone with a handgun that might hold 8 to 10 rounds, now they are facing assault weapons capable of holding 100 rounds in a single magazine.

“The guys that shoot these high capacity weapons just spray them in all directions and that is obviously an extreme danger wherever this happens,” said Hoskins.

We do? I disagree:

Hoskins says people who carry such weapons are a major threat to police and the public.

I am? I carried a full size 9mm for years. Now, I carry a compact 45. Does it make me less dangerous?

I realize, of course, the cops are talking about potential criminals and not average CCW holders. But they should at least say that.

Via SIH.

26 Responses to “Assault Weapons Hysteria Local”

  1. ben Says:

    I dunno, that looks like spray-fire to me. Where’d you learn how to shoot? Spray-fire for dummies?

  2. vinnie Says:

    “We have traffic stops and find rounds or magazines or weapons in cars where there is a group of people in the car.”

    Uuuhhmm, I don’t let my magazines go out alone.

  3. Cactus Jack Says:

    I dont see any holes in the dime. You call that shooting? 🙂

  4. Lyle Says:

    “These people are normally hard core criminals…”

    Really? So if you own semi-autos and/or large magazines, you are “normally [a] hard core criminal”. That’s what they want the public to think of you.

    I guess we’re supposed to get tired and give up on correcting them when they call a semi-auto an “assault rifle”, but I won’t. My corporation owns many AKs, I own a couple of AR-15s, and a bunch of other semi-auto rifles, but not a single assault rifle– too expensive.

    I recently had this to say regarding public servants who join in on the campaign against civil liberties:

    I submit that any holder of public office should be glad for our rights, comfortable with them, unafraid, and should always strive to protect those rights, confident in the knowledge that it is the right thing to do. Further, that anyone who is at all suspicious or fearful of our Liberties, or of the rights of the individual, should stay away from public office.

  5. chris Says:

    This segment on the news was too absurd to take seriously.

    I listened closely and all I took out of it was that cops don’t like armed citizens.

    The whole segment was pathetic and without any real points, other than the supposed inherent problems with civilian firearms ownership.

  6. Phillep Says:

    Where can I find a 100 shot magazine for my AK?

  7. ishida Says:

    Phillep:
    I thought they only made Beta-C magazines for the AR-15 and Mini-14?

  8. Mike P Says:

    “I submit that any holder of public office should be glad for our rights, comfortable with them, unafraid, and should always strive to protect those rights, confident in the knowledge that it is the right thing to do. Further, that anyone who is at all suspicious or fearful of our Liberties, or of the rights of the individual, should stay away from public office.”

    Or as President Harry Truman put succintly: “If you can’t stand the heat, stay the hell out of the kitchen!”

  9. Dave Hardy Says:

    To quote the chief: “and find rounds or magazines or weapons in cars where there is a group of people in the car.”

    Is that supposed to be a coherent sentence? Just what do they find in cars with groups of people? Do they find it or them in cars where there is not a group of passengers? And why is the distinction anything someone should care about?

    I once had a traffic stop where the officer asked why I had about a dozen rifles and 4-5 pistols in the car. I explained I was moving them from one storage place to another. He said OK, and didn’t even give me a warning for the traffic matter. Understand, I was driving a VW bug, so the firearms took up about half the interior of the car.

  10. Dustin Says:

    “They had a semi automatic assault rifle” – there is no such thing as a semi-automatic assault rifle. To be an assault rifle it has to have the happy options on the select switch – bust mode & full auto. I hate it when people use the word assault rifle & don’t even know what an assault rifle is. If a police officer doesn’t know what an assault rifle is, he should not be throwing the term around which only goes to prove himself to be an idiot.

    Like my grandpa always said – it is far better to leave your mouth shut & let people think you are dumb, than to open your mouth & prove it.

  11. A.E. Says:

    “We have traffic stops and find rounds or magazines or weapons in cars where there is a group of people in the car.”

    And if, as a result of a traffic stop, one of this chief’s officers ended up on the ground struggling to keep some nut from taking his gun from him, and a group of people in a car with rounds, magazines and weapons came to the officers aid, I think the chief might have a different opinion. Certainly his officer would.

  12. RE Says:

    This is just another of the “It’s OK for me, but not for thee” control freak mentality that permeates government.

    There’s a reason the Founding Fathers wrote what they wrote.

  13. Swen Swenson Says:

    “The guys that shoot these high capacity weapons just spray them in all directions and that is obviously an extreme danger wherever this happens,” said Hoskins.

    That’s rich. The police complaining about the dangers of civilians sprayin’ & prayin’? How often do we hear about a situation where more than 10 shots were fired and the shooter was a civilian? How many times can we all list where the shooter was a LEO? I’m glad Hoskins recognizes the problem, but I think there’s an easier way to deal with it than disarming the citizens and it’s within his power to do it, no new laws required!

  14. Swen Swenson Says:

    Come to think of it, if we had this guy’s address and knew what sort of weapons his officers carry, we could send him some of those ‘during-ban’ low cap magazines with a note sayin’ we’re trying to attack the spray & pray problem at the source. If he’s dumb enough to bring it up he’s probably too dumb to get it though..

  15. Lou Gots Says:

    Phillep: No 100rd AK mags, but plenty of 75’s, as made for the RPK, the old Redbloc SAW. For example:

    http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/MAG032-1526-1296.html

    Very neat looking, if less practical than a normal 30rd-er.

  16. norma Says:

    HAVE ANY OF YOU HEARD OF THE WORD ?”CONTEXT”? Maybe the reported cut and pasted the interview to suit TV and not exactly relate what he was talking about. It seems clear to me he was talking about thugs, and not law abiding citizens. Get a clue people.

  17. amr Says:

    “They had a semi automatic assault rifle” – there is no such thing as a semi-automatic assault rifle. To be an assault rifle it has to have the happy options on the select switch – bust mode & full auto.” I can agree from a purely weapons standpoint however my state’s politicians and others states’s have defined into law that my semi-auto AK is an assault weapon because it has a pistol grip. My semi-auto pistols are under the same category for transport and ownership but in their ignorance, they and the media call them automatics. You can’t easily win this battle of definitions with the definers having the bully pulpit and the law almost entirely under their control.

  18. Chad B Says:

    As I recall in the TV interview the Chief defined the weapon as an “SKS assault Rifle. That really shows either gross ignorance on the Chief’s part or a concerted effort to mislead the public.

  19. SayUncle Says:

    norma, yes. that’s why i said:

    I realize, of course, the cops are talking about potential criminals and not average CCW holders. But they should at least say that.

  20. Wildmonk Says:

    So, when I’m taking my sons to the shooting range do we qualify as a “group of people” in a car? There are three of us after all.

    That said, if the guy is really just focused on gangs and guns then I get his concern. It is just disappointing to see how often these guys don’t make the distinction between LACS who are competent with arms and the thugs he has to deal with.

  21. Joel Rosenberg Says:

    One of the unintended but obvious consequences of the “assault weapons” ban was the push in development of compact guns, designed around mags that hold ten or fewer rounds. There were, of course, such things before the time when only Special People could buy new-manufacture mags holding eleven or more rounds, but the restrictions, predictably, pushed development in that niche.

    If the Brady Bunch felt better because instead of a lot of 15+ mag 9mms around, we got a whole lot of 10-or-so round .45s, they kept their joy well-contained.

    (As a practical matter, I think most civilians carrying under a carry permit are probably going to be better off with pocket revolver than anything else, but that’s another matter.)

  22. Chas Says:

    Funny how police see nothing wrong with a police state.

  23. Hielo Says:

    Why do I carry a handgun?

    Because a whole cop is too heavy.

  24. Brandon Says:

    norma Says:
    December 30th, 2007 at 10:42 am
    HAVE ANY OF YOU HEARD OF THE WORD ?”CONTEXT”? Maybe the reported cut and pasted the interview to suit TV and not exactly relate what he was talking about. It seems clear to me he was talking about thugs, and not law abiding citizens. Get a clue people.

    Because in the eyes of the gun grabbers, there’s a very thin line between thugs having guns and law abiding citizens having guns.

  25. Cactus Jack Says:

    Swen Swenson Says:

    December 30th, 2007 at 9:40 am
    “The guys that shoot these high capacity weapons just spray them in all directions and that is obviously an extreme danger wherever this happens,” said Hoskins.

    That’s rich. The police complaining about the dangers of civilians sprayin’ & prayin’?”

    Yeah, like the Minneapolis PD’s raid on the wrong house last week where the cops fired 25+ rounds and, thankfully, didnt hit anyone. That’s a example of “spray and pray” if I ever saw it, done by COPS.

  26. DoubleTapper Says:

    I’ve been pulled over several times but living in Israel and having a Military issue full auto M16 with 2 30 round magazines, a Glock 17 with a 17 round magazine inserted and 2 extra 33 round magazines on my person sort of classifies me as one of the good guys.

    I always keep my carry permit with my drivers license and show both together, just in case…

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