Guns – The Deets

Backpage Isn’t All About Escort Ads. They Have Gun Ads Too.

Backpage gets a lot of press for its adult services categories, but another section that’s worth noting is the “Sports Equipment for Sale” section. Here are some examples of items for sale:

AR-15 rifles:

Bulk sales of 30-round magazines for AR-15 rifles. Only $8.49 if you buy 100+ at a time. Granted, it would suck if a deer got away before you could get off your 3,000th round for the kill shot.

And 75-round drums for AK-47s (for when 30 rounds isn’t nearly enough).

Here are two videos showing off the 75-round drum. First, a guy who shows what it’s like to be staring down the barrel of a gun being fired with one of these attached:

And a rapid-fire (75 rounds in 9 seconds) example:

What could possibly go wrong?

The Gun Van

When I saw this van:

I thought, “who would drive a van with a huge gun dealer ad on the side of it.” My question was answered when I looked at the driver’s door:

Squeak, of course. But he doesn’t drive alone. Guess who’s riding . . . wait for it . . . “shotgun”:

Family values.

Minneapolis Crime Watch on North Minneapolis ShotSpotter

Minneapolis Crime Watch beats the local news in both breadth and depth of local crime coverage, so if you’re into that sorta thing, be sure to subscribe to their blog. Here’s a clip from a recent post about early results of ShotSpotter on the North side:

Minneapolis St. Paul Crime Watch: The Northside Shotspotter’s early results

Jordan neighborhood has seen the highest number of ShotSpotter calls for service at 42% of the total ShotSpotter events. As in the Southside neighborhoods, ShotSpotter shows promising initial success. One of these early successes occurred on March 18 in the Jordan neighborhood. Police were dispatched to a ShotSpotter activation in the 2700 block of Knox Avenue North. There they located 19-year-old Jay Kong carrying a handgun. Kong was arrested and has been charged with reckless discharge of a firearm, a felony.

ShotSpotter, for those of you not familiar with it, is a series of gun shot detecting microphones mounted on street poles that automatically detect, report, and triangulate the location of gun shots. Officers can be immediately dispatched to the scene of the gun shot rather than waiting for a neighbor to call it in with varying degrees of time lag and accuracy. It’s been in use in the Phillips neighborhood for 6 months or so.