Thursday, September 22, 2011

What's The Opposite Of A Quaker Cannon?

A "Quaker cannon" looks like a big gun but is really a harmless object -- a stove pipe, a painted log (both famously deployed during the Spirited Disagreement Among The States) or even a fancy inflatable decoy (the Allies used that and a whole bag of tricks in WW II to create troops that never were -- and very successfully). It's a ploy used when you need guns but haven't got them.

The opposite? 'Way more real gun than you wanted or needed, perhaps -- and before you tell me, "You can't have too much gun!" you might want to check with the Police Chief in Greenwood, Indiana: Rick McQueary recently received a half-dozen Glock 18s (or equivalent) he never asked for.

For those of you who, like me, don't have all the Team Glock baseball cards, that's a select-fire 9mm handgun nearly indistinguishable from a Glock 17 -- indistinguishable, that is, except for the speed with which it can be turned into an empty gun. And unlike the little Beretta machine pistol, it lacks both a forward grip and few-round-burst capability; it's a weapon that requires a lot of time (and a lot of ammunition) to become competent with -- at which point, it still isn't much use to a small city police department. Chief McQueary points out his officers must consider every shot. He thinks that won't be safe at 1200 rounds a minute.

I'm pleased to hear a top cop speak, even by implication, of the importance of shot placement and taking into account what else might be downrange. Chief McQueary's not pleased at all; he's got six baby buzzguns his department didn't order and won't pay for -- couldn't even if they wanted to, it's not in his budget -- from a gun store that won't take 'em back. They're in limbo.

--No, don't ring him up with an offer to take them off his hands unless your name is "Sheriff" or "Police." They're post-'86 full-autos and thus can't be sold to We The People.

And there we have it, the opposite of a Quaker cannon: the über-firepower a police department didn't want and isn't going to deploy.

9 comments:

rickn8or said...

Scary prospect: That some some Barneyesque po-leece chief somewhere is going to think these are Just the Ticket to stem the Rising Tide of Crime in his baliwick.

Art said...

Props to Chief McQueary.
If'n those there Glocks landed in the Peoples Republic of ILL, we'd never hear about it, see 'em, nor hear mention of them. Ever.

Tango Juliet said...

Shot placement? How quaint.

jbrock said...

A police department somewhere in the US not wanting a footlocker full of mini-burpguns is enough to put me in a good mood for a while.

Fuzzy Curmudgeon said...

Seems like shooting one of those on full-auto would be even worse than a spray-and-pray AK in the hands of a trigger-happy Islamic terrorist...

Sean D Sorrentino said...

I like one of the comments left at the story,

Jay Stigdon-They could follow the ATF's lead and give them to the local chapter of MS-13

LOL

Windy Wilson said...

I'd really rather my PD didn't have such guns, either.
I thought the opposite of a Quaker gun would be a Q-ship; something like the German Raider Atlantis or the Pinguin, or a sword cane. Looks harmless, very deadly.
And Jay Stigdon through Sean D. Sorrentino wins the comments contest. MS-13 indeed!

A Local said...

What, the 30th St. Booooeyz don't rate? Geesh. Never anything nice for the local talent.

Anonymous said...

Ditto rickn8or.