USA Today: More criminals use "assault weapons"

[subdude]

It's the same old story, same old song and dance.......

Police: Criminals are packing more heat

By Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY
Criminals increasingly are choosing high-powered firearms such as assault weapons, a new survey of 166 U.S. police agencies shows.
Nearly 40% of the departments reported an uptick in the use of assault weapons, according to the Police Executive Research Forum, a law enforcement think tank. In addition, half reported increases in the use of 9mm, .40-caliber and 10mm handguns in crimes — among the same types of weapons that police use. The survey offers one of the broadest indications of officers' concerns about the armed threat from criminals involved in murder, assault and other weapons-related offenses.

Among problems cited by police officials in interviews about the survey:

•Chicago: Seizures of assault weapons are up, from 264 in 2008 to 313 in 2009. Overall, 7,785 weapons were recovered this year, up from 6,963 in 2008. Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis says there is evidence that more weapons are being used per shooting and more shots are being fired.

•Milwaukee: Semiautomatic 9mm and .40-caliber handguns were used in the non-fatal shootings of six city police officers over a 21-month period, ending Sept. 30. "The quality of weapons (used by criminals) has changed dramatically in the past decade," Police Chief Edward Flynn says.

•Louisville: Weapons-related arrests are on pace to rise for the second straight year in 2009. "We're seeing higher-caliber weapons, a lot more automatic weapons," Police Chief Robert White says. "The criminals know you don't take a bow-and-arrow to a gunfight."

National Rifle Association spokesman Andrew Arulanandam says officers' concerns are largely misplaced: "The real issue is the high-caliber criminal, not the high-caliber firearms." He says repeat offenders are overwhelming the system and could increase as states send fewer to prison to cut costs.

Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, says the high-powered weapons endanger officers. If police say there's a problem, "public officials should be listening."

source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...-caliber_N.htm

[unloved]

I'm offended on behalf of the readers of USA Today. How stupid do the writers think they are? That piece is an insult to their intelligence.

This article shows the danger inherent in the use, and proliferation of the term "assault weapon." What's an assault weapon? Why, anything anyone wants. 9mm and .40S&W, very common defensive calibers, are "high powered" now? Any gun chambered in those calibers is a high powered assault weapon?
What a load of BS.

[avizpls]

lol preachign to our own kwire here.

9mm, .40-caliber and 10mm handguns in crimes...the SAME KIND as the police?

lol ok whatever

but 10mm....I doubt thats a real frequent crime gun

[MostlyHarmless]

Any object, that can be used in an assault, is a potential assault weapon. I have an assault stapler here ...


Jan

[Wiley-X]

Gee, back in the old days, the bad guys carried .38 Specials, the same kind of gun that the cops carried.

[Searcher67]

Gee, back in the old days, the bad guys carried .38 Specials, the same kind of gun that the cops carried.

Back in the "old" days kids RESPECTED their elders~! Or else they'd be dragged home by their ear and whipped by their FATHER!

What am I getting at here?

[Steve_NEPhila]

Any object, that can be used in an assault, is a potential assault weapon. I have an assault stapler here ...


Jan

You have nothing on this for an assault weapon:

[dc dalton]

more drivel from mindless idiots (both the author and the supposed think tank)

And gee I wonder why the use of 9mm and 40 is up? Maybe because they are the most common freaking guns out there? AH DUH.

Oh and the auto weapon line? Guaranteed that's total horseshit

[donm]

Most people think they're talking about machine guns, and that's exactly what they want them to think -- you see them on TV all the time so that must be what's going on out there. By their reasoning, my 9mm compact becomes an assault weapon when I slip in one of those extra-lethal 12-round magazines.

[MostlyHarmless]

Back in the "old" days kids RESPECTED their elders~! Or else they'd be dragged home by their ear and whipped by their FATHER!

What am I getting at here?

Did they? If so, then why did Socrates complain:

"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for
authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place
of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their
households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They
contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties
at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers."

Seems to me this disrespect problem isn't as new as you think.


Jan