Carry holster for a missile?

[DaveTN]

Cops ask for guns, get missile launcher

Authorities trade sneakers, gift cards for 310 weapons

RED HUBER, ORLANDO SENTINEL, August 17, 2007

Orlando Police Sgt. Barbara Jones holds a surface-to-air missile launcher that had been turned in to the Orlando Police Kicks for Guns 2007 program on Friday. Citizens can turn in a gun with no questions asked and receive a pair of sneakers. The event was held at the Citrus bowl on Church Street.

Orlando emptied its bureau drawers and closets Friday of more than 300 unwanted guns -- and one surface-to-air missile launcher.

The shoulder-fired weapon showed about 6 p.m. when an Ocoee man drove to the Florida Citrus Bowl to trade the 4-foot-long launcher for size-3 Reebok sneakers for his daughter.

"I didn't know what to do with it, so I brought it here," explained the man, who said he found the missile in a shed he tore down last week. "I took it to three dumps to try to get rid of it, and they told me to get lost."

After hefting the weapon designed to blow jets out of the sky, police spokeswoman Sgt. Barbara Jones commented, "I tell you, you never know what you're going to get."

Ancient pistols, zip guns, shotguns and assault rifles began appearing shortly after 7 a.m. in the most successful gun exchange in Orlando and Orange County. In all, 310 firearms were turned in.

"Anytime we can sit out here and have people bring us guns, it's good for the community," sheriff's Cmdr. Al Rollins said.

Traded for sneakers or $50 gift certificates, the guns that filled boxes at the Pine Castle Woman's Center on South Orange Avenue would never reach the hands of criminals.

A portable crime scene

And each gun came with a story never to be told.

"No questions asked, right?" asked one man, who questioned the promise of anonymity for everyone turning in a gun.

"Absolutely," said deputies, who described the fellow as looking like an old biker.

Moments later, he returned with a plastic bag and extracted what deputies described as a portable crime scene worth a five-year mandatory minimum sentence in federal prison. The homemade, 40-shot assault pistol turned out to be a cut-down rifle with an illegal short barrel.

"That would scare the pants off you," Rollins said.

Deputies in Pine Castle and Orlando police officers working at a second exchange outside the Citrus Bowl checked each gun against state and federal lists to find out whether it had been reported stolen.

At least four turned in at the Citrus Bowl were hot guns because police say the serial numbers had been filed off in violation of federal law.

Many could not be traced because they were made before 1968, when serial numbers became mandatory for new firearms sold in the U.S.

An unblemished 1903 .32-caliber Colt pistol caught the eye of a knowledgeable deputy who checked the Internet and found it was worth about $1,400.

Despite being more than 100 years old, it and dozens of other old handguns in various calibers still worked and would be deadly, deputies and officers said. Few of the exchanged weapons were late-model 9 mm and .45-caliber pistols, the sort used in many of the more than 100 murders last year in Orlando and Orange County.

"It's a huge success," Orlando police Detective Barb Bergin said shortly after 1 p.m. "Clearly some of the guns we took off the street today were not for sport or self-protection. Those sawed-off shotguns were clearly for committing crimes."

The gun exchange in Orlando has been held periodically for eight years with help from Clear Channel radio stations and local media, according to Bergin, who coordinates Crimeline's cash-for-tips program.

The number of "crime guns" collected Friday surprised Bergin and the officers and deputies logging the firearms.

The Orlando program and similar ones nationwide give residents a legal, safe way to dispose of unwanted firearms. At the same time, police say the guns received reduce the number that can be stolen in burglaries to arm criminals.

Last year's "Kicks for Guns" sneaker exchange collected 113 firearms and about 20 BB pistols and toy guns altered to look like real weapons.

Like 'Antiques Roadshow'

Friday's exchange had discoveries similar to a PBS Antiques Roadshow episode in which a participant comes in with an unexpected treasure.

That moment for gun aficionados was the pre-noon appearance at the Citrus Bowl of a man carrying three firearms. He dropped them off and left, saying he didn't want anything.

"I wish he'd been my father," said Officer Kevin Williams, an assistant range master and gun instructor at the Orlando Police Department. "I'd love to have them."

Worth more than $3,000, the three military-style target rifles will be destroyed just like the rusted guns worth less than $50 that were turned in, organizers said. Before going under cutting torches, guns that work will be test-fired so the bullets and cartridges can be compared to evidence in unsolved murder cases, they said.

"Somebody took really good care of this," said Williams, holding a .308-caliber M1-A Springfield rifle worth about $1,500.

[fury2neon]

Who in their right mind would turn in a Springfield M1A for sneakers!?!?!

Why didn't the guy tearing down the shed call someone who knew something about missile launchers rather than taking it to a dump? And why didn't the various dump owners call someone about a missile launcher? I don't have a problem with responsible people owning missile launchers but if you are only trying to dispose of it call the bomb squad.

[Rightwinger]

Showing my age, but isn't that just a missle transport tube? I got out in 1989 and had seen photos of Stingers and had hefted a inert Redeye for training purposes in ROTC summer camp. I also have seen live LAWs and fired the submunition (big bottle rockets). That thing doesn't look like any anti air missle system or even anti tank I ever saw. Some of you younger MIL guys check in with an ID on this thing. Did the media get to write big words about basically an aluminum tube that we could use to put maps or blueprints in now?

[Guest Verbal Kint]

Some of you younger MIL guys check in with an ID on this thing. Did the media get to write big words about basically an aluminum tube that we could use to put maps or blueprints in now?

Yep.

[saintsfanbrian]

I may have one of those 1903 colts around some where. Not in unblemished condition. Now, why don't the police check all of these guns for use in a crime, if there have been none and they are not stolen, why not sell them (the legal ones of course) to law abiding individuals and earn back some of that tennis shoe money?

[SkWaShDeM]

I may have one of those 1903 colts around some where. Not in unblemished condition. Now, why don't the police check all of these guns for use in a crime, if there have been none and they are not stolen, why not sell them (the legal ones of course) to law abiding individuals and earn back some of that tennis shoe money?

Because that wouldn't look as good in the media. That would involve letting guns back into the hands of the people, rather than "taking guns off the streets and away from criminals" or some other feel good political drivel.

[towerclimber37]

its not a missile laungcher that I can see...simply a storage tube, for a dragon round...I'm willing to bet that there was no missile inside...lots of guys figure that milspec storage containers are great for storing stuff in, or shipping stuff in..

I shipped home a rug from Turkey in a container that looks alot like that!

[Guest yankeegonesouthern]

That is a ITAS (better know to the old guys as a TOW round) round and has to be an empty tube or training round. The missle would be inside the tube thing she is holding. That lady would not be holding one up like that! They are 50+ lbs.

If I could see the whole number on the yellow strip I could really tell you what it is. I do know that it is a basic tow either BGM-71A-3(real) or BTM-71A-3(practice/dummy).

[Rightwinger]

Well alert the General Staff that they have additional AA abilities with their TOWs now!

Of course weapons systems can be used for alternate purposes but they missed again on this one because it was something unusual. I guess Fact Checker is no longer a position in media, printed or otherwise.

But hey, I was trained as a tanker to engage rotary winged aircraft with my main gun if at all possible. I guess the Abrams is an anti aircraft weapon as well.!

Sheez. I suppose my rucksack could have been turned in as a weapons cache too. I used to carry a knife, ammo and a pistol in it sometimes.

[saintsfanbrian]

Obviously this is not a live round or she wouldn't be handling it at all, EOD would. But hey, free sneakers for your niece. Not to mention the cover on the end facing the camera appears to have been removed.