“My friend/Dad/brother/whatever is a police officer so he knows all about guns.”

How many times have you heard something like this uttered right before you hear some absolute nonsense? To be fair, a lot of police officers are quite knowledgable about guns. Unfortunately, a lot of the others don’t know crap about their guns and spout stupid crap. Having a badge doesn’t make you a firearm expert, after all.

Yet imagine the nation’s largest police department bragging about taking a non-firearm off the streets? That’s precisely what the NYPD did in a recent Facebook post.

https://www.facebook.com/NYPD/photos/a.274991665910956/2718279001582198/?type=1&theater

The problem here? The Stalker M2906 UK is a “gun” that’s only equipped to fire blanks. It’s a prop gun like you’d use in theater and film work. It’s incapable of firing an actual projectile.

So while the NYPD is crowing about this recent arrest, keep in mind that what they’ve done has amounted to jack squat with regard to keeping anyone safer. In fact, it’s done even less than their usual efforts because no one’s life was in danger with this to begin with.

Now, to be fair, a gun like this can still be used for various nefarious purposes. It looks enough like a real firearm that someone who has it pointed at them in a dark alleyway isn’t likely to question whether it’s real or not. They’ll just hand over their wallets. Further, I’m not sure store clerks are going to really scrutinize it if it’s pointed at them either.

So yeah, it’s possible that the owner of this gun had ill intent.

To be clear, I’m not knocking the NYPD for doing their jobs. If a gun like this is illegal, police officers are obligated to confiscate them and make arrests of those carrying them. I may disagree with the law in question, but I can accept someone enforcing bad laws.

That’s not what’s happening here, though. No, what we have is the NYPD bragging about taking a fake gun off the streets and presenting it as a real gun. Either the officers at the NYPD didn’t know it was a fake gun or they did.

If they didn’t, then it suggests that these fine officers don’t really have the necessary training to determine what is and what isn’t a real gun. This means there’s a training deficiency within the department that needs to be addressed and addressed quickly.

On the other hand, if they did…well, if they did know it was a fake gun and are presenting it as a real one, then they’re lying to the people of New York. They’re trying to make it like they’re accomplishing more than they really are. After all, the average New Yorker isn’t going to know jack about firearms. They’ll take the NYPD’s word for it.

A third alternative is that it’s a blank weapon modified to fire live ammunition. However, had that been the case, you have to believe they’d have said so. After all, their political masters would love to find something else to ban there, so it would be in their own interests to present that were it the case. The fact that they didn’t tells me that it’s not.

So, are the people posting this for the NYPD stupid or frauds?

At this point, does it really matter all that much?