What kind of guns do the bad guys carry?

[H&R Glock]

Is it fair to equate drug and gun crime with a lack of education and or religion? Of those finally caught for a crime, what is the average educational achievement of the perp?
I ain't never been to college, but I have a clean nose and still like guns.
The only murder I am guilty of is of the English language!

 

[Gridley]

Sometimes these guns are in great shape, bt sometimes the look like this.

WOW! Did you test fire that?!?

 

[Reloadron]

You will find that there is more violent crime in lower income areas. But that is also where you will find more drugs.
I spent 4.5 years working in the district that had the highest crime rate. I dealt with some very bad people. Barley a day went buy that I didn't have to draw my weapon. I was in a physical altercation almost every week. But I also met some very nice people.

A good friend of my and my wife's is a RN with her Masters. I like how she explained working in the projects. There are some very good people there and being poor as a result of life mistakes is not a crime. She worked the projects amid really bad people, gangs and drugs with occasional gun fire tossed in as a matter of choice because she cared about the people especially her patients who also depended on her. They knew her well and even the hood rats made sure she was safe. She went about her task unarmed and had more intestinal fortitude than I ever could hope for. Her point was "I also met some very nice people", She now works the hospital rape center midnight shift.

Ron

 

[GunnyUSMC]

Is it fair to equate drug and gun crime with a lack of education and or religion? Of those finally caught for a crime, what is the average educational achievement of the perp?
I ain't never been to college, but I have a clean nose and still like guns.
The only murder I am guilty of is of the English language!

Some of our thugs are still in grade school. Some have some college. Most are somewhere in the middle.
Think of it like this. A 14 year old sees his dad come and go to work every day just to make ends meet. He is told that if he gets an education, he can get a job that might pay more then minimum wadge. But if he drops out of school and starts selling drugs at street level, he could make $1500 to $2000 a week.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

WOW! Did you test fire that?!?

YES

 

[Gridley]

YES

I am suddenly much less jealous of your job.

Though ID'ing firearms by looking at brass under a microscope does sound kinda cool... yes, I'm a geek.

 

[ClickClickD'oh]

Now I have an image stuck in my head of Gunny having a Mythbuster style setup where the gun is locked into a vise behind a plexiglass wall and fired with a string while he wears a welding mask and hockey gloves..

 

[GunnyUSMC]

Now I have an image stuck in my head of Gunny having a Mythbuster style setup where the gun is locked into a vise behind a plexiglass wall and fired with a string while he wears a welding mask and hockey gloves..

We have one of these, but I don’t use it.

 

[Gridley]

We have one of these, but I don’t use it.

Even for that rust pile you showed earlier? Because while normally I'd prefer to hold the firearm... that one I'd have wanted a remote activation and a shield. 8-|

 

[GunnyUSMC]

Even for that rust pile you showed earlier? Because while normally I'd prefer to hold the firearm... that one I'd have wanted a remote activation and a shield. 8-|

I inspected all the gun before I fire them. If they are unsafe to fire, I note that on the evidence bag, pack them back up and return them to evidence.

 

[lightman]

Thanks for an interesting and informative post! I really expect the number of stolen guns to be higher. I'm not sure what I expected in the list of their quality.

 

[H&R Glock]

sorry Gunny I don't know how to quote................

"He is told that if he gets an education, he can get a job that might pay more then minimum wadge".

I think someone is telling the young people misinformation. An education will certainly pay more than minimum wages.
On the other hand, I'm glad my father never offered me a job running drugs as I might have gone for the money! It's hard to turn down something like that when you are poor.
My family was not poor, but we had very few luxuries.

 

[Zaydok Allen]

I inspected all the gun before I fire them. If they are unsafe to fire, I note that on the evidence bag, pack them back up and return them to evidence.

So you've never had a catastrophic failure on one I take it. I imagine given the condition of some you've shown you've got to be pretty cautious.

 

[Madcap_Magician]

I would guess this has little to do with brand and model preferences among criminals and more to do with availability. Those guns are broadly all fairly popular models, so it makes sense that they would be represented in illegal ownership in similar proportions to legal ownership, especially given how most illegally possessed guns come through straw purchases and theft.

 

[Robk13]

Thanks for the post Gunny, very interesting read, not the guns I would expect to see on this list, I too am jealous of your job haha

 

[GunnyUSMC]

sorry Gunny I don't know how to quote................

"He is told that if he gets an education, he can get a job that might pay more then minimum wadge".

I think someone is telling the young people misinformation. An education will certainly pay more than minimum wages.
On the other hand, I'm glad my father never offered me a job running drugs as I might have gone for the money! It's hard to turn down something like that when you are poor.
My family was not poor, but we had very few luxuries.

I didn’t have a lot growing up. My brother and I lived in a foster home for 5 years. My Mother Got custody of us when I was in the first grade.
Mom later got remarried but that didn’t last to long. Growing up with three brothers and a sister in a single income family didn’t leave money to waste. I guess you could say we were poor but I didn’t know it.
I pretty much stayed out of trouble because Mom could swing a mean belt.
Now days a lot of kids in low income families look for the easy way to make money. Times have changed.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

So you've never had a catastrophic failure on one I take it. I imagine given the condition of some you've shown you've got to be pretty cautious.

I did have the barrel on a Lorcin 380 split from the front of the chamber to muzzle. I was lucky the slide didn’t come apart.

 

[fpgt72]

I think you will find that bad guys stuff mirrors "normal" whatever that is anymore.....peoples stuff....but once and a while something interesting comes in.

A while ago we had a 1911 colt in 38 super....and it was vintage. You could tell at one time it was nice, but now that some dirt bag had it....really rotten. Makes you wonder where he got his ammo.....likely why we found it.

Other nice stuff is usually quickly recovered stolen....if it is gone for a while you don't want it back.

And if you filed an ins claim against it you don't own it anymore anyway....property is odd, and I am sure the sgt will explain all that if you are interested.

Things that happen to property after "da fuzz" gets it can vary....but as a general rule it sits in a box till you can get an order from "da judge" then you can trash it, sell it....or perhaps even use it.

 

[FROGO207]

I guess we are lucky that the Lorcin/Raven/Davis/Jennings/etc. old time Sat night specials have mostly fallen apart and they pose little threat as a pile of scrap zamac. This said from having part of a raven slide pop me in the forehead when it came apart at the range years ago.Gunny around here most ammo other than 12 GA promo is locked up behind glass or behind a counter where it is employees only so it would be hard to finger a few rounds IMO.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

My department asked Academy Sports if they could move their ammunition out of customers reach. They stated that the loss in sales would be greater then the amount of theft.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

Oh! Here is a pic of the microscope that the firearms examiner uses to confirm the hits that I get on NIBIN.

 

[Odd Job]

There's a simulator of a basic comparison microscope in the FirearmsID classroom area here: You have to register but it is free:

http://www.firearmsid.com/classroom/class_login.htm

It's a fun tool to spend some time on, they have two modules: one for cases, one for bullets.

 

[GunnyUSMC]

They have 6 comparison microscope here in the lab. The newest one is two years old.
Now there is an old one on display in the hall.

 

[shoobe01]

I think you will find that bad guys stuff mirrors "normal" whatever that is anymore.....peoples stuff....

I feel this is true, and it's like the other threads about "damned plastic guns these days, in my day everything was checkered walnut and fine blueing"

Because... it wasn't. Some of that is what survived, some is just recall bias. But I shopped around pawn shops and LGGs in the 80s and it was full of garbage .25 autos, no name import and clapped out big name .32 and .380 revolvers, 1911s that rattled when picked up, and so on.

We don't keep those, argue about who gets grandpa's rusty pistol with rubber bands holding the stocks on, so the only place we see the everyman gun is crime museums and historical articles, so we get an incorrect view of the history.

 

[jar]

We also tend to forget that historically the bad guys have carried good weapons, whether it was Viking raiders or Prohibition Gangsters, weapons tended to be better in the bad guy's camps than the good guy's camps. In 1919 to 1923 the Booze faction had Tommy's and Browning shotguns and Colt 1911s while the police had 32S&W and 38S&W revolvers. The Police car of the day was no match for the Rum Runners family sedan.