Border Patrol arrests illegal alien with AK-47 coming into US

[Hoopla Phil]

http://www.examiner.com/x-2684-Law-Enforcement-Examiner~y2009m6d12-Border-Patrol-arrests-illegal-alien-with-AK47-coming-into-US

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While President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton continuously blame America for the weapons in the hands of Mexican criminals -- guns they claim are smuggled from the US into Mexico, the US Border Patrol sent a report to the National Association of Chiefs of Police that paints a different picture:
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My only question is if it is really an AK-47 or just an evil look-alike.

[derby378]

1. The term is pretty much generic by now

Semi-auto or full-auto, 7.62 or 5.45 or even .223 - if it looks like an AK-47, as far as the press is concerned, it's an AK-47. They're not too concerned about the details.

[razorman]

6. Maybe it was one of those single-shot, semi-automatic, muzzleloading machine guns.

Ask the journalists on the scene. They should know.

[meegbear]

2. Am I missing something in this article?

The article lists incidents of people illegally coming into the US with AK-47, but nowhere in the article does he say where they got the guns to begin with. While one can argue that there's no proof that the guns originated in the US, they're nothing in the article to disprove it.

[X_Digger]

5. No, but I doubt a teen had $15,000 laying around

There doesn't seem to be an underground arms market in the US that includes fully automatic weapons. (Only a handful have been seized in the last decade, and only three instances that I know of where US sourced full autos have been used in crime in the last 60 years.)

Since the registry closed in 1986, the price of these arms in the legal market have skyrocketed. The cheapest full auto will run you $6,000, and AKs go for $10-20k depending on model / features / history.

[SteveM]

7. It's important to know what kind of gun this TRULY is...

If it is full-auto capable, it is very unlikely to have originated in the U.S. since there is such a minuscule market for full-auto, and not enough full-autos in circulation to bring down the price. Further, our border (while porous) is better than Mexico's southern borders and shorelines. From these vantage points, criminal enterprises can acquire full-auto arms, esp. from the South where U.S. foreign policy has resulted in flooding of true assault rifles (full-auto) throughout the region. SEE: Nicaragua, Salvador, Guatemala, etc. Not to mention Colombia where professional smuggling needs no further explanation.

[Euromutt]

3. This came up in one of Goofy's incessant threads

This one: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=118x229108

Provisional conclusion on my part was that it was Romanian, and on benEzra's part this it's the genuine article; a selective-fire Pistol Mitralieră model 1963, or possibly 1965 (the stock was removed, so you couldn't tell whether it was originally a fixed or folding stock model).

Definitely not purchased on the American civilian market.

[Hoopla Phil]

4. Crap. MODS, if this falls as a dup by all means please take what ever

action you deem appropriate. I don't think it is really a "dup" as the previous reference on this was in a different context and part of multiple links.

Thanks

[virginia mountainman]

8. Well, it is not your fault...After all...

Who pays attention to people who wish to infringe upon a civil right...

[one-eyed fat man]

9. Didn't fool with every Warsaw Pact version

but does remind me of the Polish AK74, which was in 5.45 and used different mags. But then they lump AK-47's, AKM's, AK74's all under one catchall description. The only other thing in the picture, the safety lever appears to be in the intermediate position that would correspond to "Full Auto" on the real deal.

Some variations, like the M70 series or a Tabuk you can spot from across the road. Others, you need to look at the arsenal stamps to be sure, even then field repairs result in configurations that are not in any book.