Manedwolf
member
Oh, brilliant. So now, people pulling out their cellphones in NYC can be "justified shootings" for the city's finest?
From the NY Post:
NYPD ALERT FOR 'CELLPHONE GUN'
By PHILIP MESSING
May 18, 2006 -- New York cops are on the lookout for a deadly weapon right out of a James Bond movie - a rapid-fire pistol disguised as a cellphone, The Post has learned.
Cops - especially officers assigned to security at Police Headquarters and courthouses - have been told to use "extreme caution" handling cellphones when they search suspects, according to an internal NYPD "Operations Order" obtained by The Post.
"This gun is very difficult to detect visually," it notes.
In the May 11 order, issued by Commissioner Ray Kelly, all NYPD commanders are ordered to notify their subordinates about the sinister new weapon.
"Law-enforcement agencies overseas have reported the recovery of several caches of .22-caliber handguns disguised as cellular phones," the order says.
Beneath the digital phone face is a European-made .22-caliber handgun capable of firing four rounds in rapid succession when the numbers 5, 6, 7 or 8 is depressed.
Although .22 pistols are considered "light weapons" that do not have the stopping power of handguns firing larger bullets at higher velocities, they're among the most popular guns in the world.
Users range from Navy SEALs - who favor the Ruger MKII model - to Mafia assassins, who appreciate the way a .22 round has enough penetrating power to enter someone's skull without exiting, causing maximum brain damage when fired at close range.
Joseph Green, a spokesman for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said news about the nefarious gizmos have circulated within law-enforcement circles for several years, although none are believed to have surfaced domestically.
"To the best of ATFE's knowledge, none have been recovered in the United States," said Green, who termed the NYPD warning a wise preventative measure.
The decoy phone guns - which don't light up like ordinary cellphones - have been circulated throughout the European underworld, with caches of them uncovered during drug and arms busts in the Netherlands and Slovenia.
The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI are among law-enforcement agencies that have been made aware of the devices.
Airline baggage screeners have also been briefed about the cell guns to thwart any attempts to sneak them aboard planes.
The NYPD memo indicates that the gun is loaded by sliding it open and inserting four .22 caliber bullets into separate hidden chambers.
After the gun is loaded, it can then be slid back into one piece, so it looks like a typical phone, although "it will feel heavier than a real cellular phone," the order notes.
The barrel resembles a cellphone antenna.
The NYPD order includes a detailed schematic drawing that lays out a variety of technical details on the gun's operation and construction, including the location of the firing pins, where and how the bullets are hidden and the individual triggering buttons.
An appendix shows three photographs of a man holding the phone gun in his hands and firing it - pictures that appear to have been taken from a popular Internet video clip showing the weapon in actual use.
[email protected]
From the NY Post:
NYPD ALERT FOR 'CELLPHONE GUN'
By PHILIP MESSING
May 18, 2006 -- New York cops are on the lookout for a deadly weapon right out of a James Bond movie - a rapid-fire pistol disguised as a cellphone, The Post has learned.
Cops - especially officers assigned to security at Police Headquarters and courthouses - have been told to use "extreme caution" handling cellphones when they search suspects, according to an internal NYPD "Operations Order" obtained by The Post.
"This gun is very difficult to detect visually," it notes.
In the May 11 order, issued by Commissioner Ray Kelly, all NYPD commanders are ordered to notify their subordinates about the sinister new weapon.
"Law-enforcement agencies overseas have reported the recovery of several caches of .22-caliber handguns disguised as cellular phones," the order says.
Beneath the digital phone face is a European-made .22-caliber handgun capable of firing four rounds in rapid succession when the numbers 5, 6, 7 or 8 is depressed.
Although .22 pistols are considered "light weapons" that do not have the stopping power of handguns firing larger bullets at higher velocities, they're among the most popular guns in the world.
Users range from Navy SEALs - who favor the Ruger MKII model - to Mafia assassins, who appreciate the way a .22 round has enough penetrating power to enter someone's skull without exiting, causing maximum brain damage when fired at close range.
Joseph Green, a spokesman for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said news about the nefarious gizmos have circulated within law-enforcement circles for several years, although none are believed to have surfaced domestically.
"To the best of ATFE's knowledge, none have been recovered in the United States," said Green, who termed the NYPD warning a wise preventative measure.
The decoy phone guns - which don't light up like ordinary cellphones - have been circulated throughout the European underworld, with caches of them uncovered during drug and arms busts in the Netherlands and Slovenia.
The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI are among law-enforcement agencies that have been made aware of the devices.
Airline baggage screeners have also been briefed about the cell guns to thwart any attempts to sneak them aboard planes.
The NYPD memo indicates that the gun is loaded by sliding it open and inserting four .22 caliber bullets into separate hidden chambers.
After the gun is loaded, it can then be slid back into one piece, so it looks like a typical phone, although "it will feel heavier than a real cellular phone," the order notes.
The barrel resembles a cellphone antenna.
The NYPD order includes a detailed schematic drawing that lays out a variety of technical details on the gun's operation and construction, including the location of the firing pins, where and how the bullets are hidden and the individual triggering buttons.
An appendix shows three photographs of a man holding the phone gun in his hands and firing it - pictures that appear to have been taken from a popular Internet video clip showing the weapon in actual use.
[email protected]
Must be budget time in NYC. 
