Image courtesy the sun.co.uk:
The pistol used by the Berlin truck attack Jihadi looks a lot like a Walther. But it’s a clone, probably made by Erma Werke. The Erma 552S is nearly identical, but without markings, it’s hard to be certain. There’s also an Erma RX-22, which has a shorter extractor, a longer grip, longer slide and barrel, and an eight round magazine.
Clones of the Erma 552S were made and sold by Iver Johnson as the TP22. I’ve had a couple of them, and they have a deserved reputation for reliability and fair accuracy. The sights are fixed, so consider yourself fortunate if they’re on the money. Of the two that I shot, one was on, one wasn’t. The magazine holds seven rounds.
American Arms sold the PX-22. It’s virtually identical, but has “DESIGN BY ERMA WERKZ” roll mark on the frame. I have seen both wood and plastic grips on the Erma versions.
Erma and Iver Johnson also made .25 ACP versions. Erma even made an 8mm blank-firing model. The extractor on the blank firing version is shorter, so I doubt that this is a converted blank firing gun.
When the patrol approached him, he pulled a 22 calibre pistol from his backpack and shot one of the two police officers, Cristian Movio, 36, in the shoulder.
The Itallian police were working as a pair. The wounded policeman’s colleague Luca Scatà , is a rookie officer. Scatà returned fire, killing the Jihadi. The wounded officer is expected to recover.Â
©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
So, does that mean the rank and file cops in Italy carry sidearms? Or were these guys a cut above? I do know that Italy has some relatively lenient gun laws, at least by Western European standards.
I just got back from a 3 week trip to Italy, and can confirm that all the Italian police I saw had sidearms. Also, near important historical sites like the Vatican and the Parthenon, troops were posted with assault rifles. Hats off to the Italians.
I can confirm this, having travelled through the Milan train station a couple of times over the past year. There was a noticeable police presence at the station and several cops and carabiniere were carrying assault rifles.
Huh. Good for them!
It’s been a few years since I’ve been over, and every officer I saw did carry. However, many of the in city cops also drove a prius as a patrol car, so there’s some lost respect there.
All Italian police officers, even the traffic wardens are armed usually with Beretta 98 FS.
Looks like an evil assault weapon to me… err wait, gotta dig into the archives…
Those evil Saturday Night Specials! Only the rich should be able to afford a firearm for their defense!
It looks like it would jam up on a full size All American Boys hand like ring
Glad the officer is going to be okay. Just the same, I’ll bet he’ll have some colorful words for the next self-described expert who scoffs about a .22 not being a “real” gun.
I’m sure it’s the file drawer effect but it seems like when a POS gets in a shootout with the police while carrying a .22 he always gets a lucky shot in and kills someone as if Murphy is working overtime (see: Cpl. Mark Coates).
While it’s not combat I’ve seen the lowly .22 rimfire kill pigs, cows and even a horse. Those that underrate the .22 do it at great peril to themsleves.
“…pigs, cows, and even a horse.”
Man, that had to be ugly, though.
Back when the World was Young, Greener of Birmingham sold a nasty little device called a ‘Humane Cattle Killer’ that consisted of a ‘cup’ that fitted on the critter’s forehead, a short barrel topped with a screw breech containing a striker, with a place to whack it with a mallet. It fired (in the ‘cattle’ version) a .310 cartridge (similar to a S&W .32 Long), and in versions for goats, sheep, and um, dogs, a .22.
It was designed so that the bullet went completely through the forehead, brain and into the upper spinal cord. They claimed it to be fail-safe, neat, tidy, quiet, and quick, lovely for veterinarians, cavalrymen, and slaughterhouses.
If you want one, it’s still being made in .32ACP.
It’s farm life. If you do it right the animal folds, DRT. I killed a large and aggressive german shephard type dog that was making threatening moves, he was part of a pack, with 1 shot from a .22.
Where I was from the poachers favorite weapon was the .22. It works.
A reporter on Fox news earlier called this a 22 caliber shotgun. Also glad that the officer is ok.
That gun is a variant of CNN’s AR-15 shotgun. Good stuff.
why go big with a .22 when the .9mm is always in the news,lol
Of course – everyone knows that a 22 shotgun is bigger than a 9 mm – by 13. Sheesh! Now THAT’s the truth about gun things – just ask politicians. I wonder if it had a shoulder thing that goes up? And what’s all this I hear about a salt weapon? Pepper is worse, because it makes you snee . . . what?
Oh, that’s different.
Never mind . . .
To begin with: this guy was not driving the truck, the man that was the driver was let go by the German police. This guys ID was found under the seat of the truck, just like the passport on Set 11, 2001
It looks like a nice small pistol. Do they still make/import them?
I can pretty much guarantee you won’t see them imported thanks to some of the particularly stupid regulations in the Gun Control Act of 68
When the man with a .22 meets the man with a Beretta 92…
…. and, if you listen to the first reporters who jumped on the air from Europe, it was a “.22 calibre shotgun”!!!
So much more dramatic.
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