Submachine guns, handguns stolen from LAPD SWAT-training site

[Hazcat]

Police officials confirm that more than 30 firearms, stored overnight at a building considered secure, were stolen. 'It's embarrassing.... It's a lesson learned,' Deputy Chief Michael Downing says.

By Joel Rubin, Los Angeles Times

October 17, 2011
A cache of Los Angeles Police Department submachine guns and handguns was stolen last week from a secured building used by the department's SWAT unit, raising fears that the weapons, which police had altered to fire only blanks, could be converted back to lethal use, police officials confirmed.

The weapons, which include 21 MP-5 submachine guns and 12 large caliber handguns, were moved Wednesday night to a multistory building at 14th and San Pedro streets downtown and stored in a locked box on the building's first floor, said LAPD Deputy Chief Michael Downing.

--SNIP--

When told about the weapons theft, other LAPD officers, who asked that their names not be used because they did not want to criticize fellow cops publicly, questioned why the weapons weren't simply kept at SWAT's headquarters, about a mile from the training site. "Even with some locked doors, they should have seen this as a possibility," one said.

--SNIP--

The obvious concern is that whoever stole the weapons will convert them from firing blanks to using live ammunition. Downing acknowledged that was "definitely a possibility" but said that to do so would require an understanding of the inner workings of the weapons.

Gun experts and online tutorials suggest, however, that the process is relatively simple and requires only a few parts. The company that manufactures the conversion kits used by the LAPD has an instructional video on its website that walks a viewer through the steps of returning an MP-5 to its original form in about five minutes.


more and comments at link

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lapd-guns-missing-20111017,0,3752873.story

[tombogan03884]

OH MY GOD !
There will be blood in the streets !
Oops, I forgot, it's LA, there's already blood in the streets.
But "it's for the children" so that's OK.

[BAC]

I love how they callously shrug it off as a "lesson learned".

[tombogan03884]

I love how they callously shrug it off as a "lesson learned".

If it had been you or I we'd be in jail, castigated in the press as "irresponsible right wing racist gun nuts" lading to calls for stricter gun control measures.

[Majer]

I like the part where the media tells them where to find the instructions for converting the guns back to fire live ammo. Hmmm...Maybe if any of these guns are used in any killings/Crimes they should be tried as conspirators?

[Sponsor]

[alfsauve]

The weapons, which include 21 MP-5 submachine guns and 12 large caliber handguns,

Why is it they can quote the exact model of the submachine guns but not the other handgus.  Were they S&W 500s?  or just puny little old M&P 40s?

[twyacht]

The obvious concern is that whoever stole the weapons will convert them from firing blanks to using live ammunition. Downing acknowledged that was "definitely a possibility" but said that to do so would require an understanding of the inner workings of the weapons.

Gun experts and online tutorials suggest, however, that the process is relatively simple and requires only a few parts. The company that manufactures the conversion kits used by the LAPD has an instructional video on its website that walks a viewer through the steps of returning an MP-5 to its original form in about five minutes.

What, no regular blank adapters at the end of the muzzle anymore? Either way it's probably already been on youtube....

Understanding the inner workings of the weapons, but it only takes 5 minutes to convert back...

Mexico needed a couple more anyway... 

[jnevis]

My guess is they were Simunition MP5s and 1911s, since LAPD SWATs primary sidearms arm Kimbers.

Yes, it only taks a few minutes to swap barrels on the 1911 Simunition pistols.  THe MPs are a little different but not much.
The media doesn't know the difference between a blank and a smi round neither does the general population.

[BAC]

My guess is they were Simunition MP5s and 1911s, since LAPD SWATs primary sidearms arm Kimbers.

Yes, it only taks a few minutes to swap barrels on the 1911 Simunition pistols.  THe MPs are a little different but not much.
The media doesn't know the difference between a blank and a smi round neither does the general population.

Myself included.

[TAB]

normally when they convert a gun to fire blanks, they remove alot of metal from the gun.  as blanks are longer then spent cases. 

They almost always have to cut the ejection port to get it to eject the blanks.    Then there is the baffle they install in the barrel...