Feds seize 30 'machine guns' at Tacoma's port

[Pete]

Feds seize 30 'machine guns' at Tacoma's port

AIRSOFT ALERT

http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattle911/archives/195667.asp

".....Investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosive showed that the guns had been tooled to shoot plastic balls. However, parts could be switched out quickly to allow them to fire live ammunition.

ATF lab results indicated the rifle to be a WE-Tech, Model AWSS M4CQBR, Airsoft M-4 copy........"

I have never seen one of these Airsoft rifles but would it be as easy as the BATF says it is? Or shoot standard ammunition?

[rdret1]

I don't know about this particular model, but we have used airsoft guns for SRT training. They are made of plastic or very mild steel alloy. The ones we used could in no way be modified to fire live ammo, unless you wanted to lose some digits.

[NoRoadtrippin]

That's a really odd article for a number of reasons;

It reads as though its this big unique shipment that has never happened before. And yet there's hundreds or thousands of airsoft shops here in the country. I suppose the lack of orange tips threw them off, and maybe that's why they are being "destroyed." Seems a bit extreme for what is really still just a detailed toy.

I don't see how you would ever convert these to fire anything real without a lot of work. There is no cycling system for any sort of gas. They are run electrically. And airsoft BBs are 6mm...that's slightly larger than a .22 I suppose so maybe you could swing one of those, but I don't expect it would support any sort of chamber pressure. And how exactly would the casing fit in there in the first place? Some Google work shows that people have used stocks from airsoft guns to mount a 10/22 mechanism and barrel in, but that isn't exactly a conversion so much as it just happens to be using an airsoft stock to refit the original rifle.

[JJ_BPK]

There were no serial numbers that a real gun would have but neither were there orange-blaze tips, which are required for all imported toy guns.

That statement could get the toys destroyed, if in fact that is the import law.

However, parts could be switched out quickly to allow them to fire live ammunition.

If the TOY lower is full auto and you put REAL upper on it????

Or the article was written by a hysterical Obamite Lackey of the 5th estate, looking for 15 minutes..

[Peregrino]

Lowest common denominator.

Absolutely impossible to convert these "toys" into real weapons. Not even with the services of a real machine shop. (Pot metal and plastic do not a weapon make.) And yes, the orange tip is required. Only an idiot would deliberately misrepresent an airsoft weapon as the real thing - talk about taking a toy to a gunfight!

[Sten]

This is way too Hollywood, but is possible that the guns we in fact real and packaged as "toys" in a smuggling in plain site idea?

[Martinjmpr]

I think this is one of the dangerous terrorists who is involved in smuggling these guns:

http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z256/ZappBranigan/Misc%20pictures/Imfromtheinternet.jpg

:D