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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMissile launcher shows up at Seattle gun buyback
http://news.yahoo.com/missile-launcher-shows-seattle-gun-buyback-174331546.htmlThe single-use device is a launch tube assembly for a Stinger portable surface-to-air missile and already had been used. As a controlled military item, it is not available to civilians through any surplus or disposal program offered by the government, according to Jamieson....
Police witnessed the private exchange of the military launch tube near the gun buyback event, where gun buyers tempted those standing in long lines to turn in their weapons with cash....
Officers saw guns changing private hands without knowing whether the person buying the gun had the legal right to buy it, and those transactions are occurring all the time, McGinn said.
TheMastersNemesis
(10,602 posts)You wonder what happened to the missile.
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)They are out there, thanks the first afghani war when the CIA gave them to the Taliban like candy.
Electric Monk
(13,869 posts)madville
(7,412 posts)KamaAina
(78,249 posts)Picking which four paragraphs to quote is crucial to the art of posting on DU.
madville
(7,412 posts)Used launchers/tubes are all over the place, there are probably a few on gunbroker.com right now.
NoOneMan
(4,795 posts)davepc
(3,936 posts)Somebody might swing it like a club and hit somebody over the head with it!
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)there's more to the story than just "an empty plastic tube".
davepc
(3,936 posts)Won't some one think of the children?
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)Not empty plastic tubes. Guns.
Recursion
(56,582 posts)If a conservative pro-gun Democrat like him is behind that, I think there's a good chance we can get that done.
krispos42
(49,445 posts)Hmph.
And they're investigating? So much for "no questions asked"...
SayWut
(153 posts)For starters, that's a not a "Stinger" missile (empty launch tube or otherwise), it's a Redeye launch tube.
http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/B1HWN7hVzUWuL5_rP4RKgA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD0xMDI0O3E9Nzk7dz0xNDIy/
http://www.wammt.org/collections/weapons/fim92.htm
http://www.wammt.org/collections/weapons/M41A3.htm
Secondly, it's an inert, harmless piece of military surplus, yet, there's cause for panic, worry and concern.
Thirdly, it was most likely stolen (ages ago), from a secured military facility. What, if anything, this has to do with "lax" gun control laws, background checks and/or getting guns off the street, I have no idea (other than to elicit more hand wringing that 'something must be done').
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)Honest-to-goodness guns were being bought and sold instead of bought back, as intended.
SayWut
(153 posts)Of that, I'm confident.
But, stirring up sentiment and outrage (as demonstrated by the article and OP), over a non issue (a nonthreatening chunk of olive drab PVC pipe with a pistol grip and a trigger), only serves to make the gun control crowd appear foolish, embarrassing and uneducated.
If the gun control segment of our society wants to gain any credibility or progress, they need to tone things down a bit and touch base with reality.
raidert05
(185 posts)It was a buy back alright and it will keep on happening over and over again till universal background checks are initiated and access to the NCIS System is loosened for it.