Lightning Bolts and Thunder: How the AK-47 Came to Rule the Streets

http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=a725a0e95cae324e5b3a5064c8df0b1c

By The Nino Brown (?)

"Bulletproof vests became a hot commodity to defend against these small handheld pistols, until some genius invented hollow-point bullets. Police upgraded their vests, but then someone laced the hollow points with Teflon and silicone, creating bullets known as "Cop Killers."

Good to see the old Teflon/Silicone fantasy still breathing.

The entire article, which wasn't written by Nino Brown, is fairly hilarious. PacificNews.org is obviously the place Senators Boxer and Feinstein go when they need the hard facts on firearms terminology.

They fragment. "Armor piercing" bullets are sharp and pointed.

Don't really fragment. They expand, but are supposed to stay in one piece.

And, of course, they're far less likely to penetrate armor than hardball ammo.

Sheesh. That was quite some fantasy tale.

Hollow-point bullets are almost the exact opposite of armor-piercing bullets. Hollow-point bullets expand and penetrate far less than standard FMJ (full metal jacket) bullets.

And the teflon fantasy is just that.

Never mind the comedy of errors and misinformation, the author doesn't go on and describe the consequences of mixing gangs and guns. The "commentary" comes off more like boasting and glorification of gun related violence.

hollow point "cop killers" that go through body armor like a hot knife through butter. (I actually saw this line verbatim in a SWAT for Law Enforcement magazine.)


Some rumors will never die.

SAN FRANCISCO--I got my first gun when I was 12. It was a .32 automatic, a small pistol no bigger than the palm of your hand. This guy would come around the neighborhood every three weeks with a backpack full of pistols and sell them for $25 each.

I wonder how a government ban would affect such sales.

Between the ages of 12 and 18 I came across so many pistols that it was second nature to have one on me. One day when I was about 14, a police sergeant saw me drinking a beer on the street. He's patting me down, and through the whole thing I'm thinking, "What if he finds the pistol?" I had a .45 caliber under my waistband in the small of my back. He missed it.

This guy admits to being a habitual criminal. I find it difficult to lend his views on gun control much credence.

Of all the guns I've had over the years, my favorite was a sawed-off shotgun with a pistol grip. I kept the barrel of it in my pants pocket. I'd put the handle under my armpit, which made me walk with a gangsterish limp. It was either walk with my shoulder hunched up 10 inches higher than the rest of my body or walk like a gangsta. I walked like a gangsta.

I like the specific yet superfluous reference to the pistol grip.

In the mid-'80s the gun of choice on the streets was the Uzi 9mm, a small submachine gun able to hold 30 to 60 rounds. With a longer clip the gun tended to jam. In a shooting battle that could mean death, so people soon switched to the Glock 9mm and the .45 caliber.

So the "weapon of choice" was a submachine gun, which eventually evolved into a semi-auto pistol? That seems like a rather illogical progression.

Bulletproof vests became a hot commodity to defend against these small handheld pistols, until some genius invented hollow-point bullets. Police upgraded their vests, but then someone laced the hollow points with Teflon and silicone, creating bullets known as "Cop Killers."

There is nothing factual about this paragraph.

The latest weapon of choice on the streets, the one getting all the attention today, is the Russian Kalashnikov, or AK-47 -- a large assault rifle capable of holding 100 rounds in one clip. On the streets it's called a street-sweeper, because anything it hits gets swept away. Cars and trucks are turned into Swiss cheese -- imagine what this weapon does to human beings.

Actually, the term "Street Sweeper" refers to semi-automatic magazine-fed shotguns. For someone who is so hip to street lingo, I find it odd that he doesn't know this.

I find it strange that the "latest" weapon of choice is the AK-47...a rifle that is over 50 years old. You know, that's where the "47" comes from. And as for this fully-automatic weapon, it is already heavily regulated by the NFA.

Why is this gun the gun of choice? Simple. Let's say you have a shotgun, or a snub-nose .38, or a Glock 9mm. I have a rapid-fire, handheld cannon (the AK-47). When you run out of bullets, I'm just getting started. You can't hide. I'm the equivalent of seven well-armed hunters; you're a sitting duck. You've got a pellet gun; I've got lightning bolts and thunder.

What in the holy name of fuck is this guy rambling about? Give me my Glock any day against a stupid gangbanger spraying down the street.

I've never shot an AK-47, but I have had, and shot, a Mac 90, which is a very close knock-off. I think that both guns aren't good weapons to carry around unless you're about to go to war against a large group of people.

There's the money shot. He speaks from his hardcore gangsta experience, then admits he's never even fired one. And I'm not very familiar with the Kalashnikov family myself, but isn't the MAC-90 a semi-auto?

Some people think that banning assault rifles will somehow stop them from circulating in "our" society. But even with the current ban, you can still buy an AK-47 on the streets. The same is true for almost any gun, big or small.

Yeah, you can buy them on the streets because they can't be purchased in stores. Hence the mystical, magical "black market" that the grabbers don't seem to think exists.

Umm, nope. Not even close other than the fact they are both semi autos, at least for us non-NFA folks. Without going into detail, the Mac is closer to a knockoff of an Uzi than an AK.

100 round "clip"? Nah, more likely a drum magazine. Either way it will make the AK-47 into a 20 pound monster. Try concealing that thing under some clothes.

This person knows not of what he writes. This article is so full of factual errors and terminology errors as to be a parody.

I think the author was confusing the MAC-10/11, a boxy, Uzi-looking submachine gun and a MAK-90, a Chinese Norinco semi-automatic AK copy. I'm not sure which he was really referring to.

I had a major brain fart there. Might I be forgiven?

there's nothing to forgive! It's the author's fault. :)

Bad fiction about bad people using bad guns written badly.

:toast:

bad.

n/t

How Nino got to be "the Nino" and how you came to the conclusion he didn't write it himself?

Like this one where you claimed to type an 88-word quote from the Kansas City Star with 100% accuracy:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=118&topic_id=56802&mesg_id=56915

You've never seen "New Jack City"? (That's the name of Wesley Snipe's character).

Currently, "Nino Brown" is also a well known rapper.

Seriously dude - the chances this article was written by some street kid are about as good as Josh Sugerman changing his tune about the effectiveness of the very Assault Weapons Ban that this "story" is hoping to breathe new life into.

It's a bit of snide racism....

Hell, Dolomite is baby laxative, come to that...