Connecticut politicians nearly hurt themselves describing "cop-killing" weapons

Tasty, tasty hyperbole.

tasty

Among the weapons seized were an illegal Street Sweeper; a Cobray 12-gauge shotgun with collapsible stock, front pistol grip, and 20-round drum; and a Romarm AK-47-type assault weapon with 30-round, high-capacity magazine. The magazine was loaded with 22 live 7.62 x 39 rounds, police said.

“These weapons have devastating capability. They posed a risk to our community and our police officers. The rounds in the seized AK-47 would rip though a police officer’s bullet-proof vest,” said Police Chief Joseph L. Gaudett Jr. “Imagine what it would do to a group of young people standing on a corner.”

Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch spoke to the danger that the weapons posed to the community.

“We’re very proud of the efforts that we’ve made to get these dangerous weapons, these cop-killing, innocent-people killing weapons off the streets.”

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We’ll overlook the sloppy reporting from a reporter that is unaware that the “Street Sweeper” and the “Cobray” are not two guns, but one (Cobray is the brand, the Street Sweeper is the model), to focus on the drama llama’s masquerading as competent and level-headed government officials.

They do have a point in that the Street Sweeper is as lethal as any other 12-gauge shotgun on the planet(including Joe Biden’s double-barrel special), and it sure looks scary…

Cobray StreetSweeper

…but they somehow miss mentioning that it is bulky, low-quality, jam-prone, and incredibly slow to load, and is more sought after as a status symbol on the street than it is used as an actual gun with which to commit crime.

The Romarm is a simple self-loading rifle of a design nearly old enough to collect Social Security, which uses standard capacity 30-round magazines. Anyone with lick of sense knows that “high capacity” really means “beyond what the gun designer originally specified,” and is not an arbitrary low capacity figure tossed out by ignorant politicians that can’t tell a flash hider from the shoulder thing that goes up.

A much-copied Soviet design, the rifle fires intermediate-caliber 7.62×39 ammunition that is far less powerful (roughly 1,550 ft/lbs of energy at the muzzle with a 122-grain bullet) than common deer-hunting cartridges like the .270 Winchester (roughly 2,700 ft/lbs of energy with a 130-grain bullet), or the .30-’06 (roughly 2,900 ft·lb with a 180-grain Core-Lokt).

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What Gaudett and Finch won’t tell you is something that real cop killers already know: police body armor isn’t remotely “bulletproof,” but is merely bullet resistant. Any common deer-hunting bullet will pass through it with becoming remotely annoyed. For that matter, so will ice picks.

It’s great that the police were able to capture a bunch of criminals and put them in the prison speed-dating scene, but Police Chief Joseph L. Gaudett Jr. and Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch have beclowned themselves with their over the top rhetoric.

(hattip: The Gun Wire)

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