The easy availability of anti tank weapons and grenades is US gun shops

[RSillsbee]

Is to blame for Mexico's drug war

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/11/18/104010/mexican-cartels-amass-better-arsenals.html

Who actually believes this crap?

Purchases from U.S. gun shops,gun shows and thefts from Central American munition stockpiles and vast ammo supplies allows the cartels to engage and sometimes overwhelm Mexican Army and police units,the report declares.Hand grenades,anti-tank rockets,anything goes.

It's quite a indictment .Even Tom Diaz of the VPC is quoted,if somewhat hilariously:


Quote:
The powerful .50-caliber rifle is a fearful addition to the criminal arsenal.

"It fires a very big round, as big as your hand. The bullet is half an inch across," said Tom Diaz, senior analyst at the Violence Policy Center in Washington, which advocates stricter gun laws. "If you just fire it out the window, the bullet would go about four miles."

"We know it's one of the top guns that are smuggled into Mexico."

The VPC and Diaz are still active if you can imagine that.

The usual McClatchy themes show clearly with this statement:


Quote:
The vast majority of U.S. states permit sales of semi-automatic assault rifles. Only the District of Columbia and a handful of states — notably California, New Jersey and Connecticut — ban or sharply restrict sales of such weapons. There's almost no restriction on sales of ammunition.

The entire report, with all the usual suspects expounding, can be read in the link below.Mexican Generals,a Canadian Police Director,an assistant Director of the BATFE and a Risk Manager from Annapolis are among the band.

ADDED COMENTARY

[cliffordu]

1. Hard to believe. I got a crate of real fresh claymores just yesterday,

but anti-tank weapons??

Almost never....

:eyes:

[RSillsbee]

2. Claymores

can be anti tank weapons if used right

[SteveM]

28. You should see my SAM 8s! Got 'em cheap in Dime Box, Texas! nt

[DeadEyeDyck]

3. Dad gave me some

.50 rounds. Pretty intimadating. The primers are real and the powder is full.

Tempted to make a pistol to fire these.

[diveguy]

4. Damn, I have a hard enough time firing them thru my rifle

i would hate to try it with a pistol

[PavePusher]

5. If you are talking about .50 BMG, I don't recommend it.

But if you do, I want to see the video.

Quite a few .50 cal handgun designs out there for the short .50's: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.50_caliber_handguns

[S_B_Jackson]

10. Save yourself the effort....

Buy a Glock 20 or Glock 21, and then buy a conversion kit for them http://www.guncrafterindustries.com/sneakpreview.shtml
Ammo isn't going to be cheap and I imagine it's a brute to shoot, but it does look interesting. :D

A pistol firing .50 BMG??? No thanks.....

[AJAX22]

12. You are not able to (legally) make a .50 bmg pistol

Through an arbitrary and capricious happenstance, the ATF measures pistol barrels from the groves, and rifle barrels from the lands.

So a .50 BMG bore is actually measured .510 if chambered in a pistol.

This makes it a destructive device (over .50 rifled bore)

So all .50 BMG pistols are either papered as SBR's, AOW's (most common) or Destructive Devices.

So while it would be fun, it also could land you a nice felony charge.

You wouldn't want to get busted for tax evasion ;)

[AtheistCrusader]

25. what the hell

on what planet does that even make sense.

So .50 BMG and .50 AE are the same dimensions, but the barrles are measured different? Insane.

[AtheistCrusader]

26. Deleted triple post

A new personal record

[AtheistCrusader]

27. Deleted, double post

[TheWraith]

18. There's an easier way to get the same effect.

Shorter equivalent to firing a .50 BMG out of a pistol: stand next to a busy highway, then stick your hand out so it can be hit with the full force of a car. :P

[PavePusher]

19. Yeah, that would do it.....

New nick-names... Stump... Nub... Lefty(Righty)...

[ManiacJoe]

6. The second paragraphy tries to be honest.

> But an influx of combat weapons — purchased at U.S. gun shops and shows or stolen from Central American munitions stockpiles ...


And there is no such thing as a "semi-automatic assault rifle". :banghead:


> FN Five-seveN, whose Teflon bullets can pierce body armor...

Someone has been watching too many Hollywood movies. Teflon has nothing to do with piercing body armor.

[old mark]

7. Back in the 1970's several companies made teflon coated bullets on handgun ammo...

I'm not really sure what the purpose was, possibly to reduce friction while travelling in the bore, in an attempt to increase velocity...They became known as "cop killer bullets" because they supposedly could penetrate the police ballistic vests then in use. Smith & Wesson also announced a new blue finish for handguns that "resisted fingerprints" - in an effort to limit rust caused by oils and salt in perspiration left by fingers. They were used on police duty pistols. The anti-gunners went crazy on this, imagining that they were planned for use by murderers who would be secure in the knowledge that their finger prints would not be found on their weapon if they were caught by the police after a crime spree...

They live in a world of delusion.

mark

[benEzra]

8. The Teflon coating was used on LEO-only metal-piercing ammo made of steel or hardened bronze...

as a way to keep the hard bullets from wearing out the rifling.

http://www.guncite.com/gun_control_gcgvcopk.html

Media fears (and exaggeration) over the civilian availability of KTW ammunition ultimately led to the 1986 ban on armor-piercing handgun ammunition.

Unfortunately, a whole bunch of clueless media types misunderstood the issue and thought that the Teflon coating, rather than the shaped steel/bronze core, was the root of the AP ability, and it went downhill from there.

FWIW, Federal made a line of nylon-jacketed lead bullets (their Nyclad line) for many years, for revolvers. They were reportedly very good for their time.

[one-eyed fat man]

11. The 'why' of Teflon and a picture

After some experimentation with steel rounds, the officers settled on a brass core with a 'lubricating' jacket of Teflon. Although a myth persists that the Teflon is there to either penetrate "bullet-proof" vests more effectively, or protect the bore of the firearm that fires it, Dr. Kopsch himself has testified that the Teflon actually reduces these bullets' penetration in Kevlar, and is only there to reduce the likelihood of ricochets. (Kopsch, Turcus, & Ward struck upon the idea of the Teflon coating after finding out that the manufacturers of canes impregnate the plastic tips of their canes with a Teflon compound; under pressure, the Teflon actually helps the bullet to "stick" momentarily, and it is this characteristic that reduces the chances of a ricochet off of the glass or metal surfaces of an automobile). The inventors named the round the 'KTW Bullet,' after their initials.




Introduced in 1968, KTW ammo were all reloads. In the 1970s they introduced their own headstamp. The initial production was all a steel alloy (weakly magnetic). It was significantly later, that the brass bullet was introduced. Somewhere around the early 80's, the Lorain, Ohio company no longer existed. But as your post indicates, shrill rantings about by people without knowledge on the facts, is never-ending and interminable!

This ammunition was never marketed or advertised to the general public. It relied on direct sales to police agencies. Actual cartridges are highly collectible as the only way to obtain one is from an officer who was issued the ammunition by his department. There has never been an instance where this ammunition has ever been used to defeat a vest worn by a police officer! Since 1986, possession of functioning ammunition of this type, by civilians, has been a Federal felony.

[AJAX22]

13. Thanks for the info

Thought I knew the full story on the tefflon situation...

Its amazing how much bad info is floating around out there.

[benEzra]

14. That looks like a Mk VI R/V off an old LGM-25C Titan II...

http://www.titan2icbm.org/book.html

Stand by for the VPC to launch a crusade to ban "Nuculer Bullets."

[SteveM]

30. Aha! Trademark infringement. nt

[Euromutt]

9. Nor is all ammunition for the Five-seveN armor-piercing

The standard 5.7x28mm SS190 "duty" round is armor piercing, but its sale is restricted to government entities. As a private citizen in the United States, you can only buy the SS197SR "sporting purpose" round and the SS195LF lead-free round, neither of which meets the criteria for being "armor-piercing."

So narcotraficantes may be able to acquire Five-seveNs straw purchased in the US and smuggled into Mexico, but they're not going to gain any advantage from it, because they get armor-piercing rounds for the guns via the same channel. Of course, since the Mexican army, navy and presidential guard (the Estado Mayor Presidencial) also use the Five-seveN and can buy the SS190, those might need to be examined as potential sources to the cartels...

[bossy22]

15. i love this line

"More exotic weapons such as Barrett .50-caliber sniper rifles and a Belgian-made "cop-killer" handgun known as the FN Five-seveN, whose Teflon bullets can pierce body armor, are finding a bigger place in criminal arsenals"

[AtheistCrusader]

24. 'Half monkey, half unicorn hybrids just flew out of my butt.'

This line would make more sense in that article.

[AJAX22]

16. Many of the hand grenades do actually originate in the US

It is common practice among many of the mexican cartel's to obtain those 'practice' grenades (the type you can get just about anywhere for 5-10 bucks) then they rebuild the fuse assembly, weld a plate on the bottom and fill it with gunpowder.

Standard Visco cannon fuse, some fuel line (to prevent sparks from the fuse from setting off the gunpowder pre-maturely) and a small pistol primer are all you need to rebuild a grenade fuse, and the hole in the bottom is easily plugged either with a welded plate, or by tapping it and fitting a plug.

they actually used to sell fuse rebuild kits that used capgun caps... worked pretty good from what the old timers tell me.

[Pavulon]

17. Link? Having thrown grenades of the M67 type

I would be quite scared of some half assed attempt to reactivate something that will splatter my last meal over a 10m radius. Pretty sure all the ones we sold to the mexicans are present and accounted for and are not being used in this conflict, no siree

[benEzra]

20. They're also buying M203 rounds, M203's, and government-only M4's.

I doubt they have any trouble getting live grenades in the deal.

[AtheistCrusader]

21. Yeah, because it's not easier to buy crates of real grenades off a boat from

elsewhere in the world, and/or 'steal' them from the Mexican army.

[davepc]

22. Or buy them from smuggled Iraqi stocks that wind up in the USA then the desitations unknown.

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/11/04/two-men-navy-seal-arrested-for-firearms-trafficking/?hpt=T2

Three men, including an active duty U.S. Navy SEAL, have been arrested for allegedly selling machine guns and other firearms to an undercover law enforcement officer in Nevada and Colorado, the U.S. Attorney General's Office in Nevada told CNN.

The weapons part of the alleged firearms trafficking were machineguns smuggled into the United States by special forces military personnel returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

[AtheistCrusader]

23. Ok. And this impacts gun policy/law how?

Illegal act is illegal.

[SteveM]

29. Pee-YEWW! More MSM gun-fear from McClatchy...

A strong track record of just blow-it-out "journalism" with regards gun-control politics. Like this jewel:

"Cartel squads toss hand grenades, fire rockets and spray security forces with high-caliber gunfire. They sometimes have 10 times the ammunition of federal forces."

Yeah, I saw all of that at the SAXET Gun Show in Austin, Tx. Really. I did. Swear on a stack of Bibles.

A few years ago, when MSM started to graft gun-control politics onto their other favorite prohibitionist policy of drug prohibition, I pointed out the stockpile of weapons in Central America (after years of U.S. counter-insurgency efforts), and the even more porous borders and coastlines south of the Mexican border, and how this was a more likely source for heavy military weapons. Now, the source may be the Mexican military itself. But MSM? Nah, they got an agenda to sell: drug prohibition and gun prohibition. And they will not, must not be deterred from their appointed rounds.

God, they run these stories regularly, like skiers falling into moccasin nests, and rabid otter attacks on the Suwanee River.