CAUTION: MINDLESS PSH AHEAD

Be careful. The bullshit is at least hip deep in this little bit of "journalism*"

Brazen weapon fire chills police

The gang shoot-out that rained gunfire and smoke on a quiet Dorchester street this week disturbed police on many levels: the seemingly new height in disregard for neighborhood safety, the fact that a 12-year-old girl watching TV inside a nearby house was shot through the leg.

But even more alarming: At least one of the weapons used in the gunfire was an AK-47 assault rifle, the fourth time in three weeks that one had been found or used in Boston and the seventh time since last July, when a 32-year-old man was shot dead with one.

Now, this *is* the Boston Globe. Please understand that, even under the best of circumstances, I would no sooner expect them to get something right about firearms than to sprout wings and fly to the moon. However, this article takes teh stoopid to new lows. Please, allow me to demonstrate.

Police say they are noticing more of the fearsome firearms on Boston streets than last year and, in particular, are concerned that there have been so many in the past three weeks. Tomorrow afternoon, Mayor Thomas M. Menino will meet with ministers in Roxbury to discuss crime in the city and the sudden proliferation of the rifles.

"Fearsome firearms". PSH much? What, praytell, is so "fearsome" about these weapons? Do we have to go through the whole "assault weapon/not an assault weapon" exercise again? Additionally, why is Mumbles meeting with "ministers in Roxbury"? Do these ministers have an "in" with the gang members? Or do the clergy in Boston routinely have their pulse on the illegal weapons trade?

“This [weapon] can lay down a lot of fire in an urban area where there is basically no cover from it,’’ Commissioner Edward F. Davis said yesterday. “You can conceal yourself from these weapons, but they’ll rip through a car. They’ll rip through a telephone pole. They can rip through just about anything in an urban environment.’’

The "fearsome" AK-47 fires the 7.62X39mm round, also known as .30 Russian or .30 short. It's about as powerful as a .30-30, which is what many lever-action deer rifles sitting in grandpa's safe are chambered in. The odds of this round "rip[ping]" through a telephone pole are slim, to be charitable...

"Everybody understands when they read the morning paper that you have to push as much as you can to get these guns off the street,’’ he said.
...
Nine assault rifles have been confiscated so far this year, compared with four seized in 2008. Eighteen assault rifles were found in 2007.

You know what's missing here? Two facts: 1. MA has continued the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban in perpetuity; and 2. Boston proper has even stricter regulations ban on semi-automatic rifles. In other words, the gangbangers in question are breaking dozens of laws just touching these weapons... And let's not even get into the disconnect between "MA has the AWB" and "these guns are showing up on the streets"...

But police worry about the attractiveness of assault rifles to gangs. AK-47s are much more powerful than handguns, capable of firing at least 100 yards, and can be easily converted into automatic weapons.

BULLSHIT FLAG ON THE PLAY.

Robb covered this one already. Your standard AK-47 cannot "easily" be converted to fully automatic. That's a canard that started with the 1994 AWB. It requires an not-inconsequential amount of gunsmithing and metalworking skill.

Oh, and it's also a FEDERAL FELONY that will land your ass in a Federal Penitentiary.

Community leaders and gun control advocates yesterday said many of the illegal guns in Massachusetts likely come from states like Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, where private gun owners can sell their weapons to anyone without requiring background checks.

Cite, please. Don't through up an inflammatory statement like that without some proof to back it up. "Link or it didn't happen". And, just as a reminder, it's a Federal Felony for a private sale to cross state lines. If Joe Gun Owner in NH sells his "fearsome" AK-47 to George Gangbanger in MA, they are both committing a federal crime.

Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com.

If you do decide to write to the author of this wretched bit of PSH dreck informative piece of journalism, please be polite, respectful, and factual. Remember that the author works for Pravda the Globe, is most likely a denizen of Boston, and likely has no functional knowledge whatsoever of firearms.

And please, tempting though it may be, please refrain from using terms like "pants-shitting hysteria" even though that's the most accurate term for "journalism" of this ilk.

That is all.

*in this case, "journalism" is a euphemism for "steaming turd of anti-gun hysteria that wouldn't know a fact if it got bit on the ass by one".