TV COPS: Worst gun info ever

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Waffen

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I was up late watching an episode of COPS while browsing THR, when there was shooting involving mutiple victims and somone shooting an "AK-47". This was in L.A. County

The officers are investigating the scene and they shine a flashlight on a spent 7.62x39mm casing, and the officer holding the flash light says "yup, that’s a .308, pretty consistent with an AK-47. It doesn’t matter where you hide; behind a car, behind a telephone pole, it will just go right through it and get ya!"

All you west coast people might stil be able to catch this episode.

You have to be kidding me! This just caught me the wrong way. :banghead:
 
Wow, California police officials having an ignorant view on firearms!

Seriously though, I know exactly what you mean. I've had casual conversations with police officers here in California where they seem pretty relaxed and at ease with me, but if I mention that I enjoy to go shooting, or own firearms, their whole attitude and body language becomes COMPLETELY different towards me. It's as if they view me as a threat, merely by the passing comment that I actively enjoy the hobby that is target shooting.
 
I'm a teacher, just had a chat with the new resource officer.
He makes cannons for himself and others who are involved in the North/South Skirmishers. He recently made two Gatling guns that actually work! When I asked him how he got around the ATF rules he said he makes the casings out of steel, then bores the holes in the bases and threads them to take blackpowder percussion caps/nipples so they're technically pre-1860's technology. How crazy is that?! From talking to him, he seems to really know his stuff about firearms.
He showed me the pics of he and his family decked out in the Civil War uniforms and running through drills, the Skirmishers at a 200 yard firing range having competitions, etc...
Not all cops are like that but I've met some good ones in the area. I reckon it's mostly the politically correct ones that get selected to make the correct noises on the tube. The grizzled old guys aren't pretty enough for the cameras.
 
Seriously though, I know exactly what you mean. I've had casual conversations with police officers here in California where they seem pretty relaxed and at ease with me, but if I mention that I enjoy to go shooting, or own firearms, their whole attitude and body language becomes COMPLETELY different towards me. It's as if they view me as a threat, merely by the passing comment that I actively enjoy the hobby that is target shooting.
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I think it is a fear that you might (gasp) know more than they do about shooting.

Pilgrim
 
Making hand-cranked gatling guns using modern smokeless ammunition is not restricted on the federal level.
 
I'm gonna disagree.

The worst gun info ever on a TV COPS show was when an overenthusiastic but woefully underinformed cop held up a 9mm shot shell for a camera close-up. All the while he was loudly proclaiming that this was "one of those teflon-coated cop-killer bullets".
 
I did see a cops episode, in think in Cali, where an officer started yeling "Alpha-1" or something (whatever their code is for "he's got a banned AW in his backseat and look like a Mexican 'gangsta'!"). After they cuffed everybody, cop 1 goes "He's got an AK under the blanket it the back." Cop 2 walks over (young guy) glances in (camera shows just front sight sticking out) and says "Nope, that an SKS." Pull it out, sure enough, SKS (think it was Norinco) w/loaded mag and chamber. I was kinda impressed w/cop 2.
 
Oh, I also saw a Cops where a Sgt. arrived on the scene well after a gang firefight. (bodies had been removed) He was told that several gang members had been "turned inside-out" by automatic rifles. (there were huge, and I mean huge, pools of blood in the parking lot). The cop looked at the shells, and said "Yup, looks like an AK. See how the sides of the shells are dented in? That's a clear giveaway".

This guy impressed me, too.
 
Why are folks constantly surprised that the rank-and-file, regular-Joe cop on the street is completely ignorant about guns?

Why is that so surprising to so many people?

Are there cops who know a lot about guns? Yes there are. There are some cops on this board who are very knowledgable who are on THR.

But for the vast majority of cops, guns are just tools they have to use.

Again, would you go ask a taxi cab driver for information about how to fix your engine, or about what kind os spark plug is the best for your car, or any other sort of technical information about internal combustion engines?

I mean, after all, taxi cab drivers spend more time behind the wheel of a car than just about anyone else......But would you go ask a taxi cab driver questions about car performance?

That's about the level of expertise most cops have.......To them, guns are just tools, exactly like a four-door sedan is to a taxi cab driver.

Not only are guns just tools to cops, most cops belond to departments or agencies that issue them guns.......In other words, the cops don't even get to pick which gun they carry. They are just given one, and told exactly how to use it.

I don't mean any of these comments as insults. It's just the way it is. It's just the way it's almost always been when it comes to the vast majority of cops and their guns.

I'm just mystified by folks who know a lot about guns get so worked up about it.

I doubt seriously that NASCAR pit mechanics get worked up over what taxi cab drivers spout off about cars and their inner workings.

hillbilly
 
Someone who did firearms training for police (someone published ... can't remember who ... could have been Ayoob) said something to the effect of:

5% of cops are gun nuts like us
another 5 % take that part (firearms) of their job seriously enough to learn and train.

The other 90% see firearms as 1) annoying heavy things they have to lug around all day and 2) things that people will try to kill them with.
 
Saw a statistic somewhere a few years ago that said 70% of all entrants to police academies/police training schools had zero experience with firearms.
 
It doesn’t matter where you hide; behind a car, behind a telephone pole, it will just go right through it and get ya!"
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Well let's think about this. A modern American import vehicle (not all, but we will say this one) is the thinnest gauge of European steel available .. any thinner, it would be half the thickness of sterling resume paper. Within this car is some plastic, vinyl, thin polymers, if you can believe it. I know a .308 could go through one car door and out the other side. The material in cars today don't offer much resistance.

As for the utility pole, my father (GBHS) had a .243 Winchester and he on several occasions told me he shot at the poles and the bullet went clean through. The poles aren't that thick. At one time I had a chunk of pressure treated 4x4 lumber, shot at it with .223 ammo and went clean through. This was at a 30 yard distance. Trees, metal light poles, or solid concrete would offer more resistance and maybe stop the bullet.
 
An AK will shoot right through a power pole. I've seen them shooting right through the big ones that are close to 2 feet in diameter. I've seen AKs shoot through 10 and 12 inch Douglas firs. I've seen em crater swinging steel plates 1/2 an inch thick--the big cast iron ones found under rail road ties--and leave holes in engine blocks. I've seen how fast even a semi-auto Kalashnikov can reduce cinder blocks, bricks, and even solid concrete to rubble.
I have a friend who likes to go shooting with me. Most of what she likes is just plinking water bottles with various handguns and rifles. But to impress upon her the seriousness of the hobby and the power it affords, I shot several water bottles through a 16 inch birch laying on the ground.
Shooting various materials with even an intermediate powered rifle like the 7.62x39 gives a much greater appreication for what they are capable of and for distinguishing between cover and concealment. It is sobering to realize that there may be very little actual cover available in many urban environments.
 
I've seen em crater swinging steel plates 1/2 an inch thick--the big cast iron ones found under rail road ties
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"Tie plate" is the name, placed on top the ties but under the rail. Through 12" douglas firs?? Oh my! :what:
 
Yeah those are the ones. Every once in a while my brother and I will pick up a few of the discarded ones. Hanging from a steel chain each of them lasts for several hundred rounds of even .300 Winchester class rifle fire so half a dozen of them can last you a long time...
 
Generally speaking, most cops know very little about firearms. The days of new cops being experienced with firearms are long over. Most of 'em had never seen a real firearm prior to getting hired. A university degree has become more important than any skills. Mind you, I have yet to run into any cop, anywhere, who wasn't a good guy.
"...Are there cops who know a lot about guns?..." Absolutely. I know a bunch of 'em. However, there are far more who know nothing. Their service firearm is just a heavy piece of equipment they have to lug around.
And no firearm information comes from any TV show.
 
I've seen em crater swinging steel plates 1/2 an inch thick
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Got a piece of 1" mild steel plate with 7 holes through it hanging on my toolbox at the shop. Get's quite a reaction from most folks. Gotta love AP .30-06 :D

I'd really like to see what those same AP bullets could do fired from a .300 RUM :what: I'm betting 1-1/4" plate.
 
Why are folks constantly surprised that the rank-and-file, regular-Joe cop on the street is completely ignorant about guns?

Why is that so surprising to so many people?
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Because when a cop says something ignorant about guns, it's the truth. He's a cop, he knows his stuff, right?

No, it's not their job to know alot about firearms. But it's not their job to run their mouths about things they clearly have no intricate knowledge of either. I wouldn't go around spouting falsehoods about interior decorating. I don't know the first thing about it, the same as the firearms-illiterate police officers people in this thread are posting about.

It hurts me and my peers when the infallable police lie about guns, it makes our fight harder to win because, well, why would a police officer lie? It's got to be the honest truth, right? He's a cop! Darn those .308 firing, full-auto AK-47's littering the streets with bullets that chop people in half! A cop said it, it has to be true!

I'm not gereralizing here and you folks know it. There are exceptions, but the majority of police officers can't shoot very well and don't know alot about firearms. Sorry!

On a related subject, I find it apalling how little police officers are required to train with firarms. They're required to use them when the situation requires it and are given special privelages because they are police officers, but end up emptying magazine after magazine because most of 'em can't shoot! Again, sorry! Police officers ought to be required to have more than a basic understanding of firearms ("This end goes boom"), and should be required to fire them (with reasonable accuracy!) more than a couple of times a year.
 
If you don't mind me asking, how do you have access to AP ammo?
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AP rifle ammo is perfectly legal; at least at the federal level. Don't know whether any states regulate it. It's AP handgun ammo that's regulated.
 
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