People expect the police to understand firearms. After all, they use firearms on a regular basis, right? They carry them on their hips every day and usually have access to something larger in their vehicles. They should know guns.

The reality, however, is that many police officers have little interest in guns. They carry them and, if they’re diligent, practice with them. However, many just don’t know a whole lot about firearms.

For example, take this post from the Chicago Police Department where they brag about taking a deadly weapon off the street.

https://www.facebook.com/ChicagoPoliceDepartment/posts/10154716783891534

On 06 Nov 2017, CPD’s 008th District 863 Team executed a search warrant in the 6000 block of S. Mozart. Recovered was (1) AK-47 7.62 caliber rifle with a 16 inch barrel loaded with 16 live 7.62 high capacity rounds. (1) Norinco .38 handgun loaded with 6 live rounds, and over 30 grams of cannabis all from a convicted felon gang member.

#onelessgun

It’s impressive.

It’s impressive in its wrongness.

Let’s break it down piece by piece, shall we?

First, yes, that’s an AK-47 style rifle. I’m going to give them that one because they pretty much get everything else wrong from there on.

While the AK platform is 7.62, not all 7.62 weapons are created equal. The AK is 7.62×39, that’s as opposed to 7.62×51 NATO, or 7.62×54, or 7.62×25. There’s a difference, and the fact that there’s not one listed suggests that whoever the brainiac behind this post didn’t know that.

Next, we get that the weapon was loaded with 16 “live 7.62 high capacity rounds.”

What in the wide, wide world of sports is a “high capacity round” anyway? Is it like a cluster munition the military uses, only in rifle form? Do you pull the trigger and a single round comes out, but then that round spews forth a bunch of other rounds?

Then there is the pistol.

The “Norinco .38 handgun” is even more ridiculous.

The gun in question is a Norinco copy of the Tokarev TT pistol. Norinco made those in 7.62×25 and 9mm Parabellum, the standard 9mm round we use today. They didn’t make one in .38 and they never did, so far as I can tell. That suggests that what we’re seeing there is a 9mm version of the Nornico. I say that because I’m trying to give them the benefit of the doubt and 9mm and .38 are similar enough rounds that confusion almost makes sense.

Now, don’t get me wrong. It sounds like these weapons were in the hands of someone we all would rather not be armed as a general rule. If they’re correct about that being an AK-47 rather than a civilian legal version like you can find in most gun stores–and I’m not ready to concede that following all the other errors in this posting–then he also had a gun that’s illegal for most people to possess. I seriously doubt the suspect jumped through all the legal hoops to buy it legally, after all.

This is the Chicago PD, one of the largest departments in the country. I’m quite sure they could have found someone to vet this information before they posted it on social media. There have to be at least one or two officers who know firearms on some real and meaningful level. Yet they posted this.

Remember this the next time you hear someone defend an assinine assertion with the fact they were told something by their buddy who is a police officer.