Quick, THR! Here's a picture of the "SAM" turned in at the gun buyback. What is it?

[jlbraun]

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/media/photo/2007-08/31942042.jpg

Stupid quotes from the article:

That moment for gun aficionados was the pre-noon appearance at the Citrus Bowl of a man carrying three firearms. He dropped them off and left, saying he didn't want anything.

"I wish he'd been my father," said Officer Kevin Williams, an assistant range master and gun instructor at the Orlando Police Department. "I'd love to have them."

Worth more than $3,000, the three military-style target rifles will be destroyed just like the rusted guns worth less than $50 that were turned in, organizers said. Before going under cutting torches, guns that work will be test-fired so the bullets and cartridges can be compared to evidence in unsolved murder cases, they said.

"Somebody took really good care of this," said Williams, holding a .308-caliber M1-A Springfield rifle worth about $1,500. "I'd bet a body part this was never used in a crime."

After hefting the weapon designed to blow jets out of the sky, police spokeswoman Sgt. Barbara Jones commented, "I tell you, you never know what you're going to get."

 

[El Tejon]

TOW tube? Or, is it an AT-4?

 

[jlbraun]

AT4:
http://world.guns.ru/grenade/at4_m136.jpg

The "SAM" in question:

 

[El Tejon]

Is it loaded or is it just the tube?

 

[RuffRidr]

Notice how easy she is holding it. It's likely just an empty tube. Stupid biased media.

--RuffRidr

 

[jlbraun]

TOW tube. From the comments:

The picture depicts an empty launch tube for a Tube Launched Optically Tracked, Wire Guided Missile Called a TOW. The Missile weighs 49.lbs. It is a Anti-TANK Surface to Surface Missile and it is NOT shoulder fired. It is a component of Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles and can be ground mounted on a tripod. These empty launch tubes are often thrown away because they can not be reused in any way.
I used to be a TOW Platoon Leader in the US Army.

 

[Geronimo45]

I've got to get me some of those to drop off at the next buyback.

 

[The Deer Hunter]

Well you can get emtpty rocket tubes through surplus stores for like $50. I wonder if you could bring those to the buyback program and make $100...

 

[CajunBass]

Now, Now. You know the truth doesn't really matter. After all. "It's for the children."

 

[Geronimo45]

Discared rocket tubes, inert grenades... must compile a list of stuff to sell the gun-shy.

 

[SamTuckerMTNMAN]

please someone write the journalist, I know it seems like a lost cause but they should be told how ignorant they are....



st

 

[PPGMD]

Bah destroying some fine guns just so the Bradys can feel better.

 

[B.D. Turner]

If the rocket was real why was the woman in the picture not arrested? Who's smiling now?

 

[jlday70]

looks like a tow tube..

 

[packingdressagerider]

Ha, ha, spend 50 bucks to get back 100$. I feel safer already knowing that these eeeeeeevil TOW tubes are off the streets. Gawd knows what trouble they would cause. LOL

 

[Jorg Nysgerrig]

Yep, empty TOW tube. The yellow band should say 71A-3 if we could read it all. It held a live round at one point.

 

[El Tejon]

Jorg, O.K., thanks much. How, by looking at the photo, can you tell it's empty?

The weight? (Like Encylopedia Brown and the gold brick?)

 

[Piedmont Plinker]

If I remember correctly this gun buyback was giving out shoes...

 

[glennv]

Go figure. A M1A, semi automatic, high capacity...and the cop says,"I bet this was never used in any crime."


I though all "assault weapons" were.

 

[Jorg Nysgerrig]

Just a guess, El Tejon. A loaded TOW tube is a bit over 50lbs and full of explosives (both the warhead and launch motor). She seems to be holding it rather handily for that kind of weight. Not to mention this is the kind of stuff that makes bomb squads salivate to blow up and they probably wouldn't let her swing it around. Then again, it is Florida.

 

[monsternav]

El T: 21.6 to 28.9kg for the round not including the tube.

According to http://www.army-technology.com/projects/tow/specs.html

 

[Big Calhoun]

Two questions:

1. Did someone get $50 for turning that in?
2. Where can I find empty tubes?

I'm a recent father and formula is expensive as all get out!

 

[ConfuseUs]

...will be test-fired so the bullets and cartridges can be compared to evidence in unsolved murder cases, they said.

Why do I get the feeling a few officers on that department wish TOW tubes were reloadable?

 

[PRazz]

I bought a Vietnam Era rocket launcher at a surplus store in New Jersey of all places. Empty of course but still cool. Those were the days.

 

[TexasRifleman]

Empty launcher.

Useless as an empty cardboard toilet paper roll, and about as dangerous.

Someone screwed them out of cash for that piece of junk. That's the brilliant part.