Guns given to Iraq forces are missing
Pentagon can’t find 190,000 rifles, pistols – some fear they may be in insurgents’ hands
Glenn Kessler, Washington Post

Monday, August 6, 2007

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(08-06) 04:00 PDT Washington — The Pentagon has lost track of about 190,000 AK-47 assault rifles and pistols given to Iraqi security forces in 2004 and 2005, according to a new government report, raising fears that some of those weapons have fallen into the hands of insurgents fighting U.S. forces in Iraq.

The report from the Government Accountability Office indicates that U.S. military officials do not know what happened to 30 percent of the weapons the United States distributed to Iraqi forces from 2004 through early this year as part of an effort to train and equip the troops. The highest previous estimate of unaccounted-for weapons was 14,000, in a report issued last year by the inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.

The United States has spent .2 billion trying to develop Iraqi security forces since 2003, the GAO said, including at least .8 billion to buy and deliver equipment. But the GAO said weapons distribution was haphazard and rushed and failed to follow established procedures, particularly from 2004 to 2005, when security training was led by Gen. David Petraeus, who now commands all U.S. forces in Iraq.

The Pentagon did not dispute the GAO findings, saying it has launched its own investigation and indicating it is working to improve tracking. Although controls have been tightened since 2005, the inability of the United States to track weapons with tools such as serial numbers makes it nearly impossible for the U.S. military to know whether it is battling an enemy equipped by U.S. taxpayers.

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Basically, I am afraid of a SHTF situation erupting in the next few years. I would feel more comfortable having a civilian version assault rifle to protect the family at a distance (I already have close quarters situation handled). Do most gun shops have civilian assault rifles chilling in the back room and willing to train you for a little money?
Sorry, I am in California. Namely Sacramento CA

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Is there any way you can choose what type of weapons (I.e. Pistols, assault rifles, etc.) you get to use in combat? Like could you pick up an AK and use it throughout your campaign? Also, does anyone know if there have been any confirmed kills with a .22??

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Guns technically have not much other purpose than to hunt or to harm people (out of self-defense or out of intent to physically harm). But in reality its just a tool. Guns don’t kill people, people kill people. A knife and a car could do the same thing. It might be a really redundant tool since it has no actual real life (non-violent) application besides hunting. But I still believe that guns should be legalized. Definitely not military grade small arms such as assault rifles or explosives or incendiary rounds, that should be left to the military and law enforcement.

But however I think the American gun owning populace, should really tone down the fanaticism on the type or caliber of guns they own. They don’t need an automatic AK or 50. Cal Barrett or a Silenced UZI to go hunting deer or practice shooting or home defense. That’s absolutely absurd, that’s just the machismo of the American gun-owning man, proving they have the bigger gun.

Guns are tools, and their purpose is to even the playing field. Where a 50 (5ft) kg woman can be on even terms with a 140 (6’5ft) kg criminal. I’m saying that everyone should have guns, but everyone in the right mind should have the option to have one. It’s only the stupidity and violent people in a community that can make those who guns look bad.

I’m absolutely for banning explosives (unless it’s useful in a required field), fully automatic and silenced weapons to general public but I still think people should have rights to firearm ownership and reduce the firearms allowed to no more that 3 per person. I myself own a Sig Sauer P226 40. which I shoot and the range and clean regularly. But I will never understand the kind of person that owns a 100 round AK47 and goes around blowing up propane tanks or uses a Barrett 50. Cal to hunt deer. You don’t need a chainsaw to cut your sandwich or taking a taxi to get somewhere a block away. Thanks just irresponsible and simply overdoing it. Like I said, guns are merely a tool for defense or hunting (maybe competitive marksmanship, but that doesn’t have any real day to day life value).

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Why would a person need several guns explain why someone would need 15 guns? Why would a person need an Assault Rifle? Why would a person need hundreds of bullets? What ever happened to moderation?

Like I said I can understand having a few of them, I just don’t understand why a civilian would need high powered military grade assault rifles?

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i mean we have the largest, most advanced military in the world, we spend more on our national defense than the next 25 largest military in the world and 24 of them are allies…not to mention our citizens are armed to the teeth!! i personally own 4 assault rifles and stockpiles of ammo

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They’ve invented underwater assault rifles, amphibious vehicles, recoiless assault rifles, helicopters that can attack and transport at the same time, tanks that can transport infantry, and machine pistols. What the hell does America have?

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I don’t care if you take it from a civilian or military perspective, I’m just curious. There are a million m-4′s, AR-15, now there are SCARs, the US military is looking at XM8′s right now, Bushmaster just came out with the ACR, every gun company under the sun has their version of an m4/ar15. If money is no issue, what are the pros and cons of all these straight out of the box? (feel free to add any other 5.56 nato round shooting assault rifles)
Reading the first answer I got maybe I’m not being clear. Yeah no crap about full auto not being legal, I’m not retarded, I’m not 12, I own several firearms of my own. I’m trying to find out the major pros, cons, and differences of all these new assault rifles that are on the market and that are coming out.
Ahem, once again, reading some of the answers, this is not about ammo, this is about guns, thanks
Reading more answers…..I’m NOT asking "What is an assault rifle?" I’m DO KNOW that I cannot get full auto…thanks

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I am an avid shooter and fire arm collector. I have been shooting from almost 25 years now. I am in the military. I do compete in some shooting competitions(not professionally nor am I a sponsored shooter). I am asking though what are some valid points of why people should not be able to possess firearms? Not possess silencers / suppressors? Not possess semi-automatic pistols, rifles, and shotguns? Not possess assault rifles (semi automatic rifles or not always considered assault rifles? Not possess fully automatic rifles?? I am not going to be foolish. I do agree not everyone should possess a fully automatic rifle nor does everyone need to. Some people own them cause they are fire arm collectors and like to allow public citizens a chance to shoot some military firearms. There are shooting events across the country where people can pay to shoot rounds through an automatic rifle. I also know some of you are saying why do people need suppressors if they are not going to do anything wrong. Again some people just want to own it so they can. I collect weapons from ww ii and vietnam.

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unfortunately, our forefathers didn’t have enough foresight when writing the Second Amendment. the PURPOSE of the Second Amendment is for the citizens to be able to keep weapons so that they are ever faced with a tyrannical government, they can revolt. anybody who thinks that our current government is tyrannical, please refrain from answering this question, as you are crazy.

if the Second Amendment is interpreted as citizens are allowed to have any and all weapons that they can, this means that citizens have the Constitutional right to own nuclear weapons, assault weapons, chemical weapons, military weapons, etc. etc. should there be a limit??

i’m not sure what wording i would use, but i would definitely outlaw hand guns (most important), assault rifles, extended magazines and other dangerous accessories, and any other firearm that is easily concealable or used for anything other than hunting. weapons used for hunting are plenty for self defense, and they are not easily concealable.

what do u think? do you REALLY think that things are fine the way they are now??
stop clinging to a piece of paper that was written hundreds of years ago… the Constitution AND the Bible. LOL

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can a assault rifle fire bullets as fast as a sub machine gun.
can all assault rifles fire bullets on full auto and 1 at a time like the ak 47 or m16

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I have the AK-47, the AR-10 (.308).. And the .22 AR-15… The AR-10 is made by Panther Firearms, the .22 is a smith & wessonM&P rifle and the AK-47 is an American made gun.. What is some more gun assault rifles I can buy?

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I prefer assault rifles over other types of weapons, but my accuracy isn’t great, so I probably need a gun that has high accuracy. What would you recommend? Is the Enfield good for this? Also, what attachments should I use? Red dot sight? ACOG? Other? Thanks.

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One list of undocumented foreigners’ confiscated weapons.

" U.S. authorities announced they had seized two homemade bombs, materials for making 33 more, military-style grenades, 26 grenade triggers, large quantities of AK-47 and AR-15 assault rifles, 1,280 rounds of ammunition, silencers, machine gun assembly kits, 300 primers, bulletproof vests, police scanners, sniper scopes, narcotics and cash."

http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2006/02/10/1360221.htm

Yahoo censors my questions if I use the legal term "illegal aliens". I had to rephrase the question using the term "undocumented foreigners".

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This bill has been floating around now for a couple weeks and I saw another story today on it and how its making an appearance on the hill. HR45 would make the "assault" rifle ban in 94 by Clinton look like a walk in the park. Assault rifles would not be banned for several years like before, they would be banned permanently. You would have to have an FFL in order to legally own a firearm in HR45. How would the government go about confiscating legal firearms from tax paying, ex military, clean record Americans? Liberals may ask, why do you need an assault rifle, why do you need guns, its not a matter of need or want, but of the God given right provided to all US citizens by the constitution. If two men can get married, or a woman can have an abortion, why cant I protect my family from a possible threat? Why does this administration want to take away the right to defend ourselves? Obama has already said that he will not weaponize space, he will cut our nuclear arsenal, and now he wants to take away our guns….somethings fishy here.

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PLEASE ONLY ANSWER IF YOU HAVE EXPERIENCE WITH AIRSOFT SNIPER RIFLES IN WARS.
Are sniper rifles effective in airsoft wars, or are they over-run by all of the assault rifles? Is there any point in using a Bolt action sniper rifle in a war? (I have the UTG MK96) Thanks for the help.

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If this happens to our soldiers what is going to happen to hunters that fly to places like Alaska to hunt

As the Chalk Leader for my flight home from Afghanistan, I witnessed the following:

When we were on our way back from Afghanistan, we flew out of Baghram Air Field. We went through customs at BAF, full body scanners (no groping), had all of our bags searched, the whole nine yards. Our first stop was Shannon, Ireland to refuel. After that, we had to stop at Indianapolis, Indiana to drop off about 100 folks from the Indiana National Guard. That’s where the stupid started.

First, everyone was forced to get off the plane-even though the plane wasn’t refueling again. All 330 people got off that plane, rather than let the 100 people from the ING get off. We were filed from the plane to a holding area. No vending machines, no means of escape. Only a male/female latrine.

It’s probably important to mention that we were ALL carrying weapons. Everyone was carrying an M4 Carbine (rifle) and some, like me, were also carrying an M9 pistol. Oh, and our gunners had M-240B machine guns. Of course, the weapons weren’t loaded. And we had been cleared of all ammo well before we even got to customs at Baghram, then AGAIN at customs.

The TSA personnel at the airport seriously considered making us unload all of the baggage from the SECURE cargo hold to have it reinspected. Keep in mind, this cargo had been unpacked, inspected piece by piece by U.S. Customs officials, resealed and had bomb-sniffing dogs give it a one-hour run through. After two hours of sitting in this holding area, the TSA decided not to reinspect our Cargo-just to inspect us again: Soldiers on the way home from war, who had already been inspected, reinspected and kept in a SECURE holding area for 2 hours. Ok, whatever. So we lined up to go through security AGAIN.

This is probably another good time to remind you all that all of us were carrying actual assault rifles, and some of us were also carrying pistols.

So we’re in line, going through one at a time. One of our Soldiers had his Gerber multi-tool. TSA confiscated it. Kind of ridiculous, but it gets better. A few minutes later, a guy empties his pockets and has a pair of nail clippers. Nail clippers. TSA informs the Soldier that they’re going to confiscate his nail clippers. The conversation went something like this:

TSA Guy: You can’t take those on the plane.

Soldier: What? I’ve had them since we left country.

TSA Guy: You’re not suppose to have them.

Soldier: Why?

TSA Guy: They can be used as a weapon.

Soldier: [touches butt stock of the rifle] But this actually is a weapon. And I’m allowed to take it on.

TSA Guy: Yeah but you can’t use it to take over the plane. You don’t have bullets.

Soldier: And I can take over the plane with nail clippers?

TSA Guy: [awkward silence]

Me: Dude, just give him your damn nail clippers so we can get the f**k out of here. I’ll buy you a new set.

Soldier: [hands nail clippers to TSA guy, makes it through security] To top it off, the tsa demanded we all be swabbed for "explosive residue" detection. Everyone failed, [go figure, we just came home from a war zone], because we tested positive for "Gun Powder Residue". Who the F**K is hiring these people?

This might be a good time to remind everyone that approximately 233 people re-boarded that plane with assault rifles, pistols, and machine guns-but nothing that could have been used as a weapon. Can someone please tell me What the F**K happened to OUR country while we were gone?

Sgt. Mad Dog Tra

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I want to start doing air soft and need to know a few good guns that are assault rifles to choose from nothin over 180 and nothing that’s gonna break.
Also I would like it to be electric powered if possible

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I need to purchase some military grade Assault Rifles, SMGs, Semtex, White Phosphorus as well as body armour and gas masks. Is there a good site to purchase this sort of merchandise?

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I am not new to guns in general. I have a .243 Remiginton 700 and my dad owns few rifles as well, but I dont know much when it comes to civilian assault rifles.

What would you recommend as a first assault rifle?
Penelope…Not the point here, thats a whole different argument. And CIVILIAN actually notates a certain version of an assault rifle, so its not an oxymoron.

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America, what’s wrong with this picture?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1207329/Anti-Obama-protesters-toting-ASSAULT-rifles-turn-presidential-rally–did-break-law.html

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stories of crimes involving the use of assault rifles. Handguns, yes, but rarely an assault rifle. But my memory isn’t infallible. If you know of some, please tell me, or give me a site that lists them.

This arose because I thought the amount of effort spent debating about banning assault rifles was disproportionate to their actual use in crimes, including crazy shooting sprees. So for the purposes of this question, please do not include hunting rifles or shotguns. That’s a larger question.

Thanks.

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stories of crimes involving the use of assault rifles. Handguns, yes, but rarely an assault rifle. But my memory isn’t infallible. If you know of some, please tell me, or give me a site that lists them.

This arose because I thought the amount of effort spent debating about banning assault rifles was disproportionate to their actual use in crimes, including crazy shooting sprees. So for the purposes of this question, please do not include hunting rifles or shotguns. That’s a larger question.

Thanks.

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do assault rifles have to be fully automatic to be an assault rifle or just semi and three burst/two burst

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