Snipers In The Mist

The Chicago Police discovered a “sniper nest” atop a public parking garage near a Chicago college:

Officials say they found a high-powered semi-automatic rifle about a block from the campus of Kennedy King college, near 64th and Lowe last Thursday. Officers say the nest was found on top of a garage across from a soccer field on campus.

Snipers. Deadly, cold-eyed marksmen…

A US Marine sniper. With his rifle. With a long, match-grade barrel, to use the most of the high-powered round’s power to give the bullet the highest velocity and straightest flight path possible.

…with weapons that can reach out hundreds of yards – sometime over a mile – to put a bullet precisely into a human head.

At the scene, officers recovered a fully loaded Mac-10.

(SCREAAAAAAAATCH)

A MAC-10?

The MAC10 is a civilianized version of the MAC-10 submachine gun – an ultra-short-barreled weapon designed to “Spray and Pray”; fire 20 shots a second at point-blank range. But being civilianized, it doesn’t “spray” – it’s semi-automatic. It has a four-inch barrel – the same as a modestly-respectable handgun. But it’s not even as accurate as a modest-quality handgun (and even a high-quality target handgun is useless beyond about 30-50 yards). The MAC’s “sights” are a v-notch cut in a piece of steel. It’s got a trigger pull like an old Mattel cap gun. And it fires pistol ammunition, meaning by definition it is not “high-powered”.

It is a glorified, heavy, badly-balanced, expensive handgun, with an effective, aimed range of about 30 feet. Not “a block and a soccer field and change”.

Kennedy King officials say they have notified students. Although, it does not appear that anyone on campus was ever in any danger.

Indeed.

I know that the NRA and other Second Amendment groups offer classes to journalists about how not to sound stupid when talking about firearms. Someone might want to send the TV station behind this story a gift certificate.

Posted

July 2, 2014

Media, Victim Disarmament

Mitch Berg

Tags:

Comments

13 responses to “Snipers In The Mist”

kel

July 2, 2014

“nest” – the mind boggles!
Yossarian

July 2, 2014

A “nest” in the sense there was a sleeping bag and some pretzels?
nerdbert

July 2, 2014

[…] and even a high-quality target handgun is useless beyond about 30-50 yards.

Speak for thineself. I’ve got more than one that can put out better groupings at 100 yards than my Mini-14.
Mitch Berg

July 2, 2014

Nerd – of course people CAN punch holes in paper at 100 yards with a handgun – when they’re target shooting; controlled situation, controlled or no adrenaline, lots of practice.

In a tactical situation? More difficult.

And with a MAC-10?

Good luck!
Scott Hughes

July 2, 2014

That is precision shooting nerdbert, kudos !!
David Gross

July 2, 2014

The caption to the picture shows both classically woeful ignorance and bad English: “With a long, long barrel, to help aim the high-powered rifle-caliber bullet as much tightly as possible.”
1) Yes, two “longs” appear to describe the jointed tube, (a) the barrel, and (b) the muffler/suppressor “can,” which also acts as a muzzle brake and flash hider, or condenser.
2) “aim . . . as much tightly as possible” has both the wrong verb (“aim” [It has a scope, not iron sights, which benefit from a longer sight radius] versus “group” or “impact/hit” ) and both (a) one too many adverbs in the phrase, and (b) the wrong descriptors (should be “consistently” or “accurately”).
“Aww, you know what I mean!” would be the response, if and when the errors are pointed out. “No, I don’t; unless you say what you mean in plain English.” The caption writer has already revealed his/her ignorance. Has s/he also revealed that English is his/her second language?
Night Writer

July 2, 2014

Yep, David – the caption-writer should have just gone with his/her first thought and replaced the second and third sentences with just the one word: “Scary.”
Joe

July 2, 2014

They could have gone either way, but chose the sniper designation. So,we now know, at least in Chicago, that sniper trumps semi-automatic assault weapon as the to-be-feared designation of choice.

I’m as amused by the “nest” designation as I am by the usage of “sniper.” Apparently, some reporter (or reporterette) wants to add “gritty” to their resume …
Night Writer

July 2, 2014

It was probably one of those MAC-10 sniper nests that Hillary had to dodge in Bosnia.
justplainangry

July 2, 2014

NightRider, it is only “Scary” if it is a black rifle.
bikebubba

July 2, 2014

JPA, so if I painted my MAC-10 pink (if I owned one of course), then it wouldn’t be scary!

Seriously, the one question I have is whether the reporter made this error, or merely repeated it when the CPD representative was talking. I’m guessing the latter. Either way, it would be nice if just once, a reporter at such a briefing would know enough to call the BS what it is–in the briefing.
Powhatan Mingo

July 2, 2014

The article is a gas, man.
The writer did not tell you whether the gun was functional or not, how long it had been on the garage roof, whether this “nest” contained anything other than the gun, or how it was found. The writer also did not tell you that this is a bad part of town, or that the “college” is a community college.
There is a lot of pushback to the story in the comments.
bosshoss429

July 2, 2014

“A “nest” in the sense there was a sleeping bag and some pretzels?”

Yos; I’ll bet there was also either an empty 2 liter bottle of Mountain Dew or six empty cans of Red Bull. Or maybe even the remains of a “fried chicken lunch”.