AUSTRALIA: (Editorial) Fake guns a genuine danger

[GreenStormCloud]

Last edited Sat Nov 10, 2012, 05:39 PM - Edit history (1)

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/fake-guns-a-genuine-danger/story-fndo317g-1226514369688

IF someone held one of these guns to your head, would you hand over the money?

NSW Police think so - even though one is a genuine Smith and Wesson .375 Magnum worth $980 and the other is an illegal fake we found being sold in Darling Harbour for just $98.

Police raided the retailer, a tobacconist in the Harbourside Shopping Centre trading under the name Tobacco Reef, after being alerted by The Sunday Telegraph.

NSW Police firearms squad boss Detective Superintendent Ken Finch said the replica firearms looked real enough to be used convincingly in robberies.

"They are absolutely illegal because they are duplicates of (real) firearms," Mr Finch said. "You could pull that out and people'd think it is real."

SNIP

On Friday, police from City Central station raided the Darling Harbour tobacconist and seized stocks of the fake guns, which have been sent to ballistics experts for analysis.

snip

More at link

Fake guns thast can't shoot bullets were sent to ballistics for analysis???

How soon until they outlaw pictures of guns?

[PavePusher]

1. Have Aussies always been that stupid, or is it a recent development?

Gun store employee in the picture needs some serious remedial training before he injures himself or a customer or co-worker.

[spin]

2. It is always wise to keep your booger hook off the bang switch unless ...

you wish to hear a loud noise.

Perhaps he got his firearm safety training from watching movies.

[Eleanors38]

3. Spin, is that the only posed picture of a Bond with a revolver? nt

[spin]

5. Here's another picture of James Bond with a revolver. ...

In the movie Live and let Die, Bond, played by Roger Moore used a nickel plated Smith & Wesson Model 29 .44 Magnum, with what appears to be the 8 and 3/8th inch barrel. The revolver initially appears to be a Ruger Redhawk .44 magnum in the publicity shots, but the Ruger Redhawk was not available until 1979, some six years after the release of the film.
http://www.vincelewis.net/bond2.html

[Eleanors38]

6. Ol' man Ruger was criticized for not updating...

but he had his finger on the pulse of trends (the single-action craze engendered by T.V. westerns in the 1950s), and civilian use of decent semi-auto rifles. I don't doubt they had a proto-type ready for Moore, and the movie-makers weren't going to miss catching a late wave of Eastwood's Dirty Harry stuff.

[glacierbay]

4. Why would you send a fake gun

to ballistics experts for analysis? What are they going to analyze? Oh I know, a fake bullet.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

7. So you can trot out an "expert witness" in court

Expert witnesses always impress juries. Especially if they can, in excruciating detail, describe how a two-ounce piece of plastic is not, in fact, a two-pound .357 Magnum revolver.

Ballistic test: Yes, we pulled the trigger, and noted the trajectory of a stream of water.



edit to add: Happy Veterans Day. I hope you got your free lunch at a local participating restaurant.