In 15 years as an NYPD undercover cop, “Stevie Gunz” spent Sundays kneeling in the presence of the Lord. The rest of the week found the preacher’s son knee-deep among sinners.

The now-retired cop flaunted the colors of the Crips and the Bloods, buying dope and sawed-off shotguns while working the city’s streets and housing projects in a bulletproof T-shirt.

Before turning in his shield two years back, the native New Yorker earned his nickname by helping take nearly 500 guns off the street, testifying at 55 trials – and never firing his gun once.

Full Story – HERE

Worth the read. It’s part 1 of a 3 part series… I’ll post the rest when they come out.

Interesting chart presented in the article (shown below)… I can’t say I’m surprised at any of the guns on the list:

I am a little surprised no rifles made the list though.

New York Mills, NY – Shortly before 1 p.m. on that Thursday afternoon, Dickan walked into the cellular phone store on Commercial Drive, with a .357 magnum in his hand, and a list in his pocket containing the six names of the AT&T store employees to which he was holding such deep anger, and planned to kill as a result.

Authorities believe Dickan could have been even more successful with his list of six victims, if not for the instantaneous actions of Rome Police Officer Donald J. Moore, who was off-duty, but in the store as a customer at the time of the shooting. “He heard and sees the gun, draws his weapon, and fired,” Lt. Little said of Officer Moore’s reaction.

Full Story – HERE

Man there are some crazy people out there.

Pretty awesome that the armed off duty police officer was able to save at least 6 lives.  See, guns save lives too, it works both ways.

That’s the 2nd story in the past few days that has involved AT&T and guns. The other was the man in Oregon who tried to shoot out the tires of a getaway car of some robbers who stole multiple iPhones.

New York City - Cops are livid over a legislative proposal that could handcuff the brave officers involved in life-and-death confrontations every day — requiring them to shoot gun-wielding suspects in the arm or leg rather than shoot to kill, The Post has learned.

Full Story – HERE

LOL when I read that I double checked that I was on a legitimate news site, not some satire website.

Vice President Joe Biden, who scoffed and suggested it be dubbed “The John Wayne Bill” because it demands sharp-shooting skills of the kind only seen in movies.

I don’t agree with Joe Biden often, but he is right on the money with that statement!

A big problem with laws like this is the fact that the court system is going to be even more clogged up with family’s trying to get rich off suing the police because their son etc… should have been shot in the arm or leg… he shouldn’t have had to die!

Also, It appears that no one that is proposing this new bill has any idea how the human body works. There are arteries all over the arms and legs, and if you get hit in any one of those you are on your way to dying very quickly.

Nothing like giving criminals more rights

If this passes, I bet lots of cops will decide to retire early.

(The picture I used in this article is the same one that the NYpost used.  Pretty interesting grip the guy is using,  the old “2nd hand holding the wrist” hahah nice.)

Faisal Shahzad, who has spent the last two weeks under guard at a Brooklyn hotel, told his interrogators he was surprised the haphazardly constructed device didn’t detonate — and begged them to explain where he went wrong, a law-enforcement source told The Post.

Full Story – HERE

hahahahah what a piece of work. I hope they told him some clever lie, just to infuriate him.

I wonder why they have had him under guard at a hotel for the past 2 weeks? Why isn’t he in jail? Preferably not in protective custody.

I put the 2 pictures together in photoshop, as a before and after.  Doesn’t look like hes having such a great time anymore does it?

“We have learned something important since the days that I served in Vietnam,” Mr. Blumenthal said to the group gathered in Norwalk in March 2008. “And you exemplify it. Whatever we think about the war, whatever we call it — Afghanistan or Iraq — we owe our military men and women unconditional support.”

Nice words… BUT…

Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat now running for the United States Senate, never served in Vietnam. He obtained at least five military deferments from 1965 to 1970 and took repeated steps that enabled him to avoid going to war, according to records.

Full Story – HERE

Judging by the rest of the article, he seems to be doing a whole lot of backpedaling now.

Pretty funny how the NYT headline says his “words differ” rather than calling him a liar. How classy of them to use a euphemism. 

I’ve never been to war, or been in the military.  But for those who have, I assume its pretty easy to spot when someone is bullshitting about their service.

Sadly, an incident like this probably wont hurt his senate chance.

The New York Times invites members of the military who are serving, or have served, in Afghanistan to help us document the daily life of this war in photographs, video and writing. Take us on a tour of the forward operating base, introduce us to your friends, describe the hardships and rewards of deployment and the humor that helps you pass the time.

Full Story – HERE

I have a lot of respect for the “At War” section of the NY Times.

Bill Clinton praises Bloomberg’s efforts in gun control:

heh a .50 cal “taking down a wall”

What do you guys think?

Looks like it would be an interesting place to work.  A few hundred cameras is a long way from the amount in the UK… but still I imagine that is their goal.  Pretty troubling that they feel there is actually a requirement for that.

Another related ’60 minutes’ episode on homegrown terror:

It’s amazing but true: we can prevent terror suspects from boarding an airplane, but the FBI doesn’t have the power to block them from buying dynamite or an AK-47.

Full Story – HERE

Not true Mayor Bloomberg… you actually can’t prevent terror suspects from boarding airplanes, and that is evident by the fact that recent Times Square bomb plot suspect Faisal Shahzad was able to board a Dubai-bound flight at JFK airport in your own city (Source).

I’m all for “closing the terror gap” when taken at face value… but in reality rather than buying new guns and risk being caught, terrorists will just start purchasing guns used (stolen or otherwise) or obtaining them through a legal 3rd party (also known as a straw purchase).  Just like other criminals, terrorists obviously do not care about the law, so circumventing it to get what they want is not going to faze them.

I can’t help but be suspicious that closing the terror gap will also mean more restrictions put on the rest of us.

Another problem is that currently the terror watch list is a huge joke. There are thousands of people on the list that shouldn’t be on there.  Should they be denied the right to purchase a gun?  Remember 8 year old Mikey Hicks?

That’s a good look for the Prius!

It must be for a movie or something, because the car has New York plates on it.  We all know guns are banned in NYC, so there is no way that could have happened in the wild.

Four people were shot and 54 were arrested in New York’s Times Square late Sunday night in an Easter melee some fear was gang-related.

Hundreds of New York City police officers worked to contain the violence, making dozens of arrests and stopping pedestrians to look for weapons, the New York Post reported. One police officer was injured in the knee as he tried to stop the ruckus. A couple of hours later, two more women were shot and suffered non-life-threatening injuries, The Associated Press reported.

Full Story – HERE

Ironic, considering how strict gun laws in NYC are.

Since Easter violence seems to be a yearly occurrence in New York City’s Times Square, it would be socially responsible for the tourist information places to warn visitors.  My guess is they don’t though.  Getting shot would sure put a damper on the rest of a persons holiday.

When President Obama took office, gun rights advocates sounded the alarm, warning that he intended to strip them of their arms and ammunition.

And yet the opposite is happening. Mr. Obama has been largely silent on the issue while states are engaged in a new and largely successful push for expanded gun rights, even passing measures that have been rejected in the past.

Full Story: NewYorkTimes

A surprisingly negative and stereotypical “crib sheet” summary of the New York Times article at over at Vanity Fair.

This one comes from Staten Island, NY:

You have got to be kidding me? So this “zero” tolerance policy now covers micro sized LEGO guns? What a complete lack of common sense on behalf of the principal.

What’s next? A kid makes a gun with his index finger, and thumb and subsequently has to walk around in handcuffs with mitts on?

Nothing surprises me anymore…

Full Article – HERE and HERE

Hat Tip: Say Uncle

Gun rights advocates are hoping for even fewer restrictions on where they can have a firearm. Among their top goals is to make Arizona the third state where it is legal to carry a concealed weapon without a permit. Bills in the House and the Senate would also eliminate background checks and training classes for people to carry hidden guns.

“All we’re doing is handcuffing good people, restricting their constitutional, God-given right to carry and perhaps their ability to defend their families,” said State Senator Russell Pearce, a Mesa Republican sponsoring the bill.

Right on!

Police departments worry that making permits optional might encourage more people with bad motives to carry concealed weapons, said John Thomas, a lobbyist for the Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police. It also could lead to more accidents by people not adequately trained, Mr. Thomas said.

As always I disagree with the “encourage more people with bad motives to carry” argument, because criminals do not care about the law.  The part about accidents happening more frequently is a valid concern.  I hope that even for their own personal safety, no one would carry a gun that they were not familiar with.

Full Article at the New York Times website – HERE

Full auto shenanigans:

Want to see the hanguards on a M4 melt and start on fire?

Want to see the barrel on a M4 droop and then explode?

Those guys are having way too much fun at work

The M-4 carbine, one of the primary rifles used by the United States military, appears destined for a change. After concerns surfaced about rifles overheating in a sustained firefight in 2008 in Afghanistan, the manufacturer and the United States Army are close to agreeing on a modification to the weapon’s barrel that makes the carbine more resistant to the stresses of extended firing.

Full Article at the New York Times website – HERE

This is a continuation of my blog post on New York Times on the Making of the Military’s Standard Arms

For bulk purchasers, a new M-4 costs about $800 per rifle

I actually thought the cost would have been much lower.  A bulk price of $800 seems very steep.  I suppose these are not comparable to your average low end AR-15 though.

Full Article on the New York Times website – HERE

Hat Tip: SayUncle

CoBIS

Combined Ballistic Identification System

A system where the shell casing of a bullet, (or brass) from a fired round is supplied by a gun manufacturer in an approved container shipped with a new handgun that is shipped to the NY State Police when the gun is sold or if the new handgun is shipped to the Federal Firearms License holder, the FFL takes the gun to the State Police Lab to be test fired and the lab keeps the shell casing and the fired bullet.

• The shell casing is scanned into a computer data base to be compared against shell casing recovered from a crime location.
• This program has has NO success in NY while costing $4,000,000 to start and an estimated $4,000,000 a year to maintain or an average cost of about $200 per legal gun.
• CoBIS only collects information from legal guns that are new and have not been linked to a crime and the size of the data base in New York alone is in 10s of thousands of guns and will, within the first 3 years included almost 66,000 data files with almost 22,000 new handguns being added each year. (Source)

Questions:

1. This program is been around for 8 years and has had no success… so why is it still sucking up millions of tax payers money?
2. Does the shell casing always has to be matched to striations (marks from the guns rifling) on a bullet found lodged in something at the scene, and both of those tied back to the gun?  Or is it considered enough evidence if just two out of three are available?
3. Why would someone that is legally buying a gun want to take the risk of being in a database such as CoBIS?
4. Should we all take collecting our own brass at the range a lot more seriously if systems like this are going to be used to assign guilt?
5. Doesn’t the firing pin, and barrel rifling slightly change over time with normal wear?  How is this taken into account?
6. We know that criminals can pick up their casings at a scene, modify the rifling of the gun, modify the firing pin to produce a different imprint.  So why have a costly system that is rendered useless if even one of those happens?
7. Since New York isn’t an impenetrable fortress, where nothing can get in or out. What use is this database if a criminal can just bring in a gun from another state to commit a crime?

Hat Tip: Say Uncle

My photoshop is on the right:

Click the pictures to enlarge them (as usual)

Hat Tip: SnowflakesInHell and GunPoliticsNY