"Like a handgun, but made of bright yellow plastic"?
Specially designed to appeal to kids, then? I predict a very bad day for a sibling somewhere in London, some time soon.
GJC
The Metropolitan Police ia appealing for the return of a Taser and four cartridges that were left on the roof of a police car, which was then driven away... A Met firearms officer attended an early morning briefing at Norfolk Row, Lambeth. After the briefing, possibly focussed on coffee and a bacon sandwich, the copper put the …
Mr Plod says it's safe because the batteries will now be flat and the person in possession of it won't have the correct charger!
http://www.nonlethaldefense.com/tabachkit.html
They look remarkably like standard AA Ni-Mh to me - I don't suppose you could pop into a shop in the high street and buy a charger for those!
In a local supermarket's toilets, in their cafe (before they got turned into Tesco and got rid of the cafe part) a woman from the army went to the toilet while her group were out on some kind of exercise. There was a lot of alarm when people found a gun, type not specified by the old women in question, sitting on the cistern.
Luckily they managed to get in touch with the army people and get them to go back to collect it, presumably while closing the toilets to the public for everyone's safety. Either that or they realised it was missing and went back to look for it, either way it very luckily didn't get into the wrong hands. I'm assuming it would be a pistol and not a rifle since those are pretty damn hard to forget.
And my stepfather was in the Tank Regiment until invalided out after almost 20 years service. He did a bit of time in Germany in the 50's and told a story of the US base near to where he was stationed losing a 50 tonne tank.
Not sure of the exact details, but something to with an exercise that went a bit haywire. He said it took them almost a month to locate the missing ordinance.
Just imagine a load of GIs roaming around Germany "Say buddy, have you seen a tank - about yay big, brown and green, with a goddamn big gun on top?"
He made no comment about whether it still had the tracks on when they found it.
a traffic coppers folder thingy. Metal cover and full of ticket stubs that he'd obviously written that day (loads of them.)
It too was on the road not very far from (a)The main plod HQ for the county & (b)the main motorway that ran through the area.
From the looks of the damage on it that wasn't the only time it had picked up some gravel rash.
Unfortunately for a large number of motorists this was in the days when I still had a vestige of respect for our uniformed enforcers, sorry, police officers. So I called the traffic division. It took me all day to get the damn thing back to it's owner, and he didn't even have the guts to come to the door and accept it himself. He was 'busy'.
"Over middle aged, above average earning British geezer"
Above average earning for the UK, or above average earning for UK middle aged geezers?
I'd reckon the average *middle aged* geezer has above average earnings for the UK. You could still be above average earnings for the UK and still be earning below average for middle aged geezers.
I get that being white, middle aged and a higher earner probably makes you, on average, more likely to trust the police than you would if you were a young black person living in a deprived area. Therefore all the more shocking that you don't trust them.
But what does being bald have to do with anything?
Sorry Sarge I lost the Taser
Waht !!!
I lost the Taser, Sarge, left it on the car roof.
Wahht !!
It must have fell of, Sarge.
I'm really sorry Sarge, I must have forgot it.
Oh don't worry, 1234 Tarquin, here just take this data stick over to the Yard will you, there's a good chap
Just wondering if the BOFH might work somewhere along the route taken by this distracted Officer? Might this soon be seen (suitably modified) in the toolkit? Im sure rigging a charger would be simple to such a skilled individual or indeed the PFY. It has advantages of range over the cattle prod surely?
I handed in a sawn-off during an amnesty. The plod behind the desk, filling out the paperwork, asked what was the reason for having it and I said - a little incredulously - "Home defence?". He said I'd better not say that, implying that was illegal and I could be arrested for it. Seems to me the only other reason for having a sawn off would have been even more illegal (whereas I'd just taken about a foot off to stop whacking it against the door frames as I crept about the house).
I don't recall what he put on the form or whether I found out. Given that I was living in the middle of an inner-city housing estate, I wonder if he wrote that I did target shooting, or game shooting?
I suppose I _could_ have said I had it for vermin control, which was kind of true.
If the barrel length of a shotgun is under 24 inches, it is classified as a Firearm, and must be held on a Firearm Certificate, which is harder to get than a Shotgun Certificate. You could quite legally take a thirty two inch shotgun barrel and cut eight inches off the end, without requiring re-classification.
Eight and a bit, and you're in the shit.
Hope that helps. :o)
Over 30 years ago as a lil kid I started collecting keys as a super easy hobby.
Over the years I have collected many many lost keys. all sort of keys. Big keys, small keys
Even simple keys(for toys) and even new keys and very old house skeleton keys.
What I did not know was at the time one of the keys I had was a police ANY key/universal key.
So anyway at age 27 I finally got my own place and willfully informed the apt management that I collect keys since I was a lil kid and if they ever have a person locked out of their apartment they can come running over to me for some help as I had so many I am sure one of them would work.
And I was right and a pretty lady came knocking on my door askign for help. I finally got her door open and the apaartment mgt told me to hand over all my keys and if I dont then I have to move out and leave...... Grrrr!!!!! it was a police officer who finally ended up getting and owning my key collection. I begged them and told them it was my lifes collection but they didnt care.
Mk I: Opens any padlock.
It's got two long handles going to a lever assembly attached to two short blades. Open the handles, put the blades around the shackle of any lock, and close the handles. Also known as a bolt cutter.
Mk.II: Opens any door:
Long fiberglass handle, attached to a a 20 lbm. head, flat on one side, optionally tapered on the other. Also known as a splitting maul or sledgehammer.
Mk.III: Opens any keyed lock: A torsion wrench and a number of small metal bits. Also known as lockpicks.
In general, you're lucky if a random key fits into a random keyway, much less actually works on the tumblers. I've got the decent collection myself: House keys from several houses I no longer live in, mailbox keys for mailbox I no longer have, keys from employers I no longer work for, and the ones I still use.
Ah, but this is the organisation of “specially trained” “experts”…..
….. who can discharge a weapon at 90 degrees to the axis of the range, and fail to report it to range control, up until the point that the local vet comes round to ask how a 9mm ended up in a horse he just treated.
Who can wound a civilian colleague in a training room, because they didn’t “THINK” it was loaded
Etc, etc………….
Firearms safety comparisons between the police and military would be an interesting and useful bit of information for the government to publish.
The last time I had access to UK Military safety comparisons, they where quoted per 100k rounds fired, and started with a decimal point and a several zero's.
The batting order was RAF was the safest, followed by the RN, and the Army came last. (this may be due to the old familarity breeds contempt issue)
Given the relatively small number of police firearms officers, the number of publicly known accidents is worrying, especially as they seem to be concentrated in the met and thames valley.
There are several commercial products available now to neutralise Tasers, and their ilk, from spray on high-conductivity sprays (like anti-static or anti-stain sprays).
For those participants in G20 or education fee hikes, more effective tailored clothing might prove effective. See: < http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/safety/taser+proof-gear-is-great-for-students-political-activists-criminals-318169.php >, < http://catmanslitterbox.blogspot.com/2009/08/defeating-tasers-and-other-non-lethal.html >, < http://www.thorshield.com/prod01.htm >.
Question: How come Plod doesn't order / use the lanyard / tether option - or are they just too cheap?
Hm, who needs to worry about imported weapons when the police leave theirs behind on a semi-regular basis.
At least this time it was 1 semi-lethal taser, rather than a case full of pistols falling out of the van on the way back from the range.
The weapon is not lethal to all targets, but is lethal to specific groups (heart defects, pace makers, etc.), hence it is semi-lethal.
Reduced Lethality (Home Office term) would indicate that is less likely to cause lethal injury in ALL persons.
But given the average citizen thinks they are non-lethal, it is a fine distinction that is lost on most people
batteries, I know coz I was looking at a Taser the other night the X26C.
It is a civilian model thus the C in the model name but believe or not Tasers can have firmware upgrades ! The X26C also has more black plastic and less yellow plastic
Pricewise I can buy both a Smith & Wesson Stainless 6" .357 and a pocket Rossi stubby 2in .357 for less.......
They say a mild stimulating electrical current enhances sperm production.....
Here let me try it, "Yahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"..... Ohhhh that was good..... "Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"......
"Here you try it", Oooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww" Yahhhhh far out!!!!"
Teenage Tazer craze sweeps Britain - overtakes Viagra....