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TV Journalists Try Buying AK-47 On Dark Web, Fail (deepdotweb.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the guns-and-neuroses dept.

An anonymous reader writes: "It was supposed to be a great story about terrorism, uncertainty and the evils of the DarkNet," writes Deep Dot Web, describing an investigative report titled "Fear of Terror -- How Endangered is Germany?" After interviewing security experts, federal investigators, and a survivor of the Paris terrorist attack, a TV news crew in Germany attempted to buy an AK-47 on the dark web -- only to be scammed out of $800. "If he had done a little research he could have known that most weapon dealers on the DarkNet are actually scams," the article points out, adding that German customs officers say they would have intercepted any AK-47 had a delivery been attempted.
Motherboard reported in November that the high number of scams -- some of which are undercover agents -- prompted several dark web markets to stop offering guns altogether, though they suggest the German news crew was trying to recreate the purchases of "disabled" weapons which were then converted back into their original form.

5 of 88 comments (clear)

  1. Media, meet reality by habig · · Score: 3, Insightful

    A similar meme here in the US: "you can buy a gun on the web without a background check! The horror. Must close that loophole."

    Any journalists trying to do this for a story would quickly realize that only is possible if buyer and seller are able/willing to meet physically, otherwise the act of shipping the firearm, which must go through a licensed dealer, gets backgrounds checked. And a physical meetup between individuals is pretty hard to regulate with or without an internet.

    1. Re:Media, meet reality by khasim · · Score: 3, Insightful

      And if they would stop and THINK for a moment they'd understand WHY.

      The person willing to sell the weapon IN VIOLATION OF MANY FEDERAL LAWS (in the USofA) understands that he will ... probably ... be selling to someone LESS inclined to break those laws.

      So WHY would the seller be inclined to take that risk for $800? Does he plan to make enough profit in volume? Repeat customers? Or does he just like the idea of spending time in prison?

      This reads like "journalists" who spend too much time watching TV and movies.

  2. Re:Ripoff by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    See this handy chart:

    http://i.imgur.com/ueu7x5T.jpg

  3. Re:TV "journalists" watch a movie by davester666 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well, you don't really want the gov't, or really anyone else, to be setting some kind of bar to indicate who can be part of the 'press', because then it becomes very open to abuse. And that's generally worse than bad reporting by your grandma.

    --
    Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
  4. Re: Stupid by bigfinger76 · · Score: 3, Informative

    They're not modified to be semiauto - they are semiauto. These are civilian versions - crippled replicas, essentially.