“A man stopped for public drinking on Staten Island had two submachine guns on him, police said.” That’s the 411 (911?) from nbcnewyork.com. “When the officers opened the bag, police say they found an Intratec Model AB-10 submachine gun and a Calico Model M-9 submachine gun.” Even though the correct models of the pistols are given in the story, they are still misidentified as submachine guns. With all the scorn that has been heaped on media outlets for their ignorance about guns over the last 60 years, you would think that news reporters or editors would . . .

perform a quick Google search to check facts before reporting on firearm models. My impression is that they don’t because they are busy (who isn’t) and because they are *proud* of their ignorance about guns. It shows that they are a “real progressive.” Anyway, you can see from the picture above that the pistols have been badly abused. The corrosion is serious. It’s not clear if the guns still function.

https://youtu.be/ZXE1c_k0toQ

Looks can be deceiving. I’ve seen firearms that looked like rusted junk become completely functional with a little cleaning and lubrication.

https://youtu.be/FDnPvwVBz10

The article doesn’t say if any magazines were confiscated with the pistols. While the Intratec AB-10 never really caught on, the Calico is rather rare and pricey. Magazines are especially difficult to find. They are an interesting piece of technology, even if they are big, awkward and clumsy – like the journalism that described them.

©2015 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Gun Watch

30 COMMENTS

  1. The perp was obviously a scuba diver and looked under one of those “tragic boating accidents”.

  2. Major media’s gotta … err, Media? No, they (like NYC po-po apparantly) gotta dip-sh_t.

    I don’t know why. Ask THEM.

    • Baby killing death bullet throwing black murder assault weapon (sub)machine gun fully-automatic (blow up a train yard) 50 caliber gun ghost with clip magazine in half a second.

  3. Those lib “journalists” would probably have soiled themselves if they knew the capacity of the Calico’s “clip”.

  4. Well, they look scary if you are an ignorant journalist. They need a scary name for them to rile up the readers. “Submachine gun” is Media-speak for “pistol”, the same way that “assault/sniper rifle” is Media-speak for “rifle”.

    • This, right there. They don’t care about proper identification. They care about sound bites and fear mongering to generate stories.

      There’s just nothing exciting about “two rusty old pistols”.

      “A man stopped for public drinking on Staten Island had two rusty old pistols (in a bag) on him…”

    • There was a tragic fire, followed by the inevitable boating accident, obviously caused by too much blood in the owners alcohol system.

  5. To the press “semiautomatic” and “submachine” gun sound similar enough to be used interchangeably. Definitions don’t matter.

    • On the other hand, I think they know exactly what they are doing when they use “submachine gun” rather than “rusty old pistol”.

      I believe it is purposefully used to generate fear which in turn generates stories, viewers, and props up their agenda.

      Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to confiscation (to alter a quote from the small green guy).

  6. It’s not just guns. The media gets EVERYTHING wrong…any time I hear a “news” story about a subject where I have some expertise, they get it wrong, so by extension I have to assume that the get everything else wrong, too.

    • Not real human depravity. They study that sh_t and do a ‘shark week’ on it ’til they get it right, and they do enough of an expose on it so that the kids w/babysitters can see it. Crazy sh_t, and people, that would never be able to survive the light of day enough to coalesce to become a “news story” get a 40 min. segment, when TTAG is too much trouble for them.

  7. I hope they were registered before Governor Fredo’s unSAFE Act deadline, or the guy might be in REALLY big trouble.

  8. I used to enjoy the show DEA on Spike TV. I was watching an episode where they raided a stash house when all of the sudden, you hear shouts of “we’ve got guns in here!” DEA Agents come into camera holding a Kel Tec SB 2000 screaming “we got a Mac 10, we got a Mac 10!”. They then proclaim it is almost certainly full auto and they run into these full auto murder machines all the time. This was the DEA, on their own show. I was stunned.

  9. Like the media gives a crap to be accurate??
    If it sounds good they use it. Why should the NYPD or any popo agency fact check anything??
    Unfortunately the general unwashed that read or see it believe it in their own ignorance.
    The truth is told here. Where its seen by those who already know better.
    Ain’t that the American way lately??

  10. Ever since I first saw a Calico I’ve wanted to get my hands on one. But I’ve got higher gun priorities on my not so short list.

  11. Eh at least the one looks fairly submachinegun-like… I’ve seen them call regular semi-autos weird names so this is not surprising.

  12. It’s not about getting the facts correct. It’s about making the guns as scary as possible. And also putting the term in LIV’s* minds for the future when BHO tells us we need to get rid of the ability to buy machine guns easier than buying a (name your consumer commodity).

    *Low Information Voter

  13. The media makes money from fear mongering. “If it bleeds, it leads” is more true today than when the phrase was first coined. Make people fearful and they will keep watching the news for information on what could potentially kill them. Every storm that blows is in is reported as a potential life threatening disaster. Every food on the market is a potential carcinogen. Hundreds of people will die from the extra noxious gasses released from VW’s killer diesels. And every gun the police encounter is some sort of evil military style weapon designed for mass killing.

    Afraid yet? Good. Keep watching. Updates at 10:00.

    • In this case there is the additional component of trying to get people to vote their way. A happy by-product for them, I’m sure.

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