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Police Swarm Bungie Office Over Halo Replica Rifle

sv_libertarian writes 'A panicked person in Kirkland, WA called local police on Wednesday, claiming they saw someone walking down the street with an AK-47. It was actually a Bungie employee carrying an overgrown model of a Halo sniper rifle, which resembles an AK-47 as much as a Volkswagen resembles a Formula 1 racer.' Halo 3: ODST is set to launch on September 22nd, and fans got some new details and early looks at the game during PAX.

12 of 746 comments (clear)

  1. The police are morons by Vinegar+Joe · · Score: 3, Informative

    Washington is an open carry state.

    http://opencarry.org/wa.html

    --
    "The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
    1. Re:The police are morons by Jussi+K.+Kojootti · · Score: 3, Informative

      An AK-47 is semi-auto, not full-auto, so your question is irrelevant.

      There may be semi-auto versions available for hobbyists, but as a general statement that is just wrong. The AK-47 is definitely a proper assault rifle capable of emptying the 30 round magazine in 3 seconds if need be. In fact it is pretty much the mother of all assault rifles, copied dozens of times around the world.

  2. Well, to be fair, by Hawthorne01 · · Score: 5, Informative

    ...it doesn't look like an AK-47, but that's become the generic term for "semi-automatic rifle with detachable magazine", thanks in part to lazy reporters who don't know the 1st thing about firearms.

    However, it does look like a whole lot like a Barrett .50 sniper rifle, so even I'd wonder if it was the real deal or not.

    --
    "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
  3. Re:Ah, paranoia by nurb432 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Don't joke, they have something similar to a 'replica ban' in the UK already.

    The rational is not 'because its scary', its to make the bans rather vague in their coverage. You capture more weapons that way, with the general publics approval.

    --
    ---- Booth was a patriot ----
  4. Re:AK47? by anagama · · Score: 3, Informative

    While you can buy a replica at Big5, Kirkland is in Western Washington where any random person you meet is more likely to live a vegan lifestyle than own a firearm. In Eastern Washington, the guy with the replica would have been swarmed with requests for information regarding caliber, accuracy, and where to get one.

    --
    What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
  5. Re:Some people fear guns like they fear bugs by DragonWriter · · Score: 4, Informative

    No. Read the Constitution mister cop (you know, that thing you pledged to protect, but apparently never read). Carrying a flag, sign, or other item is considered "symbolic speech" according to the Supreme Court and therefore protected.

    Police are permitted to advise people that they would be generally better off doing things even when those things are not legally mandatory; of course, people are also free to ignore such advise, arouse suspicion in their neighbors, have the police called and have the police arrive to investigate. That something is Constitutionally protected doesn't mean it isn't suspicious to your neighbors, and it doesn't mean the police won't investigate when they get a report, and that both the report and the follow-up inquiry won't be perfectly legal.

  6. Re:AK47? by Kral_Blbec · · Score: 4, Informative

    Heh, too true. (I live in Eastern WA)

    Note it is also completely legal in Washington to have a unconcealed firearm without a permit. There was a court case of a felon carrying two rifles to a pawn shop that got stopped and arrested for possession. It had to be thrown out (even though he was in illegal possession) because the cops had no probable cause to arrest him even though he was walking down the street in broad daylight with two rifles. That set the precedent for OC in Washington.

  7. Re:The professor Gates case??? by BlueNoteMKVI · · Score: 4, Informative

    Have you listened to the 911 call? I have - the caller did not mention race until the 911 operator asked her. When asked, she replied "one looked kind of Hispanic but I'm not really sure." This hardly jives with your idea that she was "some busybody neighbor doesn't like your skin color living on her street."

    Agreed, the situation could have been handled much better on both sides. Personally from what I've read I think Gates was just being a twit and the cop didn't do much to help the situation. Before you spew racial vitriol all over the internets, get your facts straight.

    Since you apparently have not yet read the transcript I assume you're too lazy to look it up (it was posted on the front page of major news sites for some time after the incident). I'll save you the google time and provide a link:
    http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/transcript_of_gates_call_1llqzVbjNMc0kloOxegLhO

  8. Re:Ah, paranoia by epilido · · Score: 5, Informative

    you mean like this????

    Pearl highschool "However, assistant principal Joel Myrick retrieved a .45 pistol from the glove compartment of his truck and subdued Woodham inside his mother's car." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_High_School_shooting

    or

    Colorado church shooting. "Chief Richard Myers called the Colorado Springs church security staffer "a courageous security staff member who probably saved many lives." http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/12/09/church.shooting/

    Before you say that the church security office was a trained individual. please read about the story. as I remember it the church had some word that something might happen and they asked a few people to act as security guards. "
    At this point, Jeanne Assam, a church member volunteering as a church security guard, opened fire on Murray with her personally owned concealed weapon" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Colorado_YWAM_and_New_Life_shootings

    While I agree that these 2 incidents do not prove the value of CCW. they make a clear statement that not only professionally trained law enforcement officers stop these type of crimes. There are many under reported cases of private citizens stopping criminal behavior with a firearm.

    Epi

  9. Re:Didn't Bungie used to be a Mac Game shop? by Anubis+IV · · Score: 3, Informative

    They used to support the Mac just as much as (actually more than) Blizzard does these days. They were never exclusively a Mac developer, but many of their games came first to Mac and then later to Windows, and they may have had one that was a Mac exclusive. For example, Halo was premiered at an Apple keynote address and was scheduled to ship for the Mac well in advance of PCs, before they were bought up by Microsoft.

    As for these days, not too many, but they've only been out from underneath Microsoft for about a year now. Not even really enough time to develop anything new that they could bring to Mac. Halo was actually the last game from them that I remember seeing for Mac (and it was ported by Gearbox, as I recall, not Bungie itself), but I haven't been paying as much attention to them in recent years since all they've been working on is Halo, and that franchise never really panned out the way I expected it to.

  10. Re:Ah, paranoia by michaelhood · · Score: 3, Informative

    They are the ones who sometimes stop crimes before the police arrive. They are the ones who have CCW permits and stop deranged sociopaths who are going on public murder sprees before they can kill or before they can kill as many people as they'd like to.

    The fantasy land of the gun proponent. There's a boogie man behind every corner out to get you, and the gun toting everyman hero saves the day. Sadly, nothing could be further from the truth. Legal gun ownership leads to nothing more than more guns in the wild for the bad guys to get their hands on and more gun accidents in general. The number of crimes foiled by gun carrying good guys is so small in comparison that it can barely be counted.

    Number of gun owners in the US: 80,000,000.

    Number of accidental gun deaths per year (all age groups): 1,500.

    Accidental deaths per gun owner: 0.0000188