Gun arrest: "You can't let it spoil your fun!"

Jennifer Brown, 34, doesn't get Downtown much from Johnson County, but she was at the St. Patrick's Day parade Friday, at 16th & Grand, with her husband and sister-in-law.

She wasn't sure which way Downtown was or which side of the street she was on, east or west. She saw a young man with a machine-pistol -- oops, a TEC-DC9 semiautomatic handgun with 30-round clip - arrested in front of her - and it didn't faze her one bit.

"We were watching the parade and I turned around to take a picture of my husband. He got all excited and said, 'Look at the police taking that kid down! He's got a gun!" she told me.

"That's when I started taking pictures. I was trying not to be so conspicuous, I didn't know if they'd yell at me, take my camera away or whatever," she said.

Will she be back next year?

"Oh, sure! You cannot judge your good time by one person. How many times have you been in a crowd of people, and you don't know how many people have guns. You can't let that spoil your fun," she said.

She sent me five photos of the arrest. Thanks, Jen! Her shyness cost her photographically - you can't see as much as in the previous post of arrest pix- but here they are: 1 2 3 4 5

Comments

[Lance]

I'm a seasoned urbanite, but this story freaks me out. What purpose, other than mass murder, does a hood have bringing a MACHINE GUN to a parade? I'm staying the hell away next year. Between the fights, the guns, and the attacks on families in broad daylight, this event needs to be brought under control or shut down.

[ScooterJ]

Is this the incident where the gun turned out to be a toy or is this something else?

[Brad]

1.) A machine pistol is not a "machine gun".

2.) The firearm pictured in the photograph is not a machine pistol - the model appears to be a not-readily-convertible semiautomatic Tech 9 in 9mm (prove me wrong about it being a semiautomatic rather than a "machine pistol", Greg.)

3.) The KC Star continues to blithely misrepresent in its reporting on guns.

If it were a "machine pistol", we expect to hear that the federal prosecutor's office will be bringing charges for violation of NFA '34.

What do you say, Greg?

[Ronald]

And let the facts get in the way of a great story?..no way man.
j/k

[Johnny T]

I'd like to see a follow up story on this with what the individual was charged with and when his trial is...

of course it's Jackson county..he'll probably plead down to a non-moving violation and pay a $128 fine ;)

[Steve]

Glad scooter j. clarified the hardware. Perhaps he should do this for all the obits to.

[J. Brown]

Greg-I was on the East side of the street. EAST!
Thanks for clarifying what kind of gun, Scooter J. (Everyone was asking.)

[Nate]

I realize these phones are a "new development" but do we really need another day of this?

[Nate]

Whoops, by "phones" I meant "photos"

It's too early...

A tech nine an Uzi what is the difference Brad, your missing the point, the point is children shouldnt be carrying Uzi's to the St. Patricks day parade and flashing it around in front of families.....arse

BRAD-

It was an Uzi Brad, and the Full name for an Uzi is Uzi submachine gun. Look it up on the net, it is an Isreali weapon and it can easily be located on the net just by searching so before you keep making your own assumptions, examin the picture search Uzi and you will see that it is a sub machine gun or a "machine pistol". Brad your an idiot, plain and simple buddy!!!

[Brad]

Greg, I am a little bit disappointed in you. I enjoy your work and the Crime Scene blog, but it does disturb me a bit when you seem to state that "the police say it's so, so it's a machine pistol." Well no, it isn't. It's a machine pistol or not, independent of what the police want you to believe.

I challenge you to *find out* what the thing is and then, let us know.

Meanwhile, here's what I find about machine pistols:

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

machine pistol \machine pistol\ n.
A fully automatic pistol; a small submachine gun.
[WordNet 1.5]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

machine pistol
n : a fully automatic pistol; a small submachine gun [syn: {burp
gun}]

My point to you, Greg, is simply that words mean things. Calling something (a scary-looking semiautomatic handgun) something that it isn't (a "machine pistol", which is a submachine gun) does not seem to me to accurately represent journalistic integrity.

Or have standards slipped to the point that accuracy and precision in language and meaning just don't matter anymore? What?

*****

To the anonymous person who called me an idiot: I have owned a couple of Uzi Model B's and thus, probably know a little bit more about them than you do. Both happened to be semiautomatic. Mine were carbines; the pistol version is called the "Micro Uzi". Fully automatic Uzi's have been legally unavailable for private purchase by American citizens since 1986. However, the firearm shown in the photograph is not an Uzi. As I mentioned earlier, it looks like a Tec 9 to me. But maybe you can establish otherwise? I'd like to see how you would do that.

Thanks.

[Crime Scene KC]

Brad is correct, in that police say the firearm was a TEC-DC9 semiautomatic weapon with a 30-round clip.

A "machine pistol" is an automatic weapon, and calling it that was my error, not the newspaper's or police's.

Greg Reeves

[Jason]

That gun is not a tec-9 or an Uzi. It's a Cobray Mac-11, and is not as dangerous as an Uzi. If that was a Tec-9 I wouldnt be afraid at all, as Tec-9's jam more than they fire. The kid was carrying it for the same reason most kids carry guns of that age: It makes them feel more powerful than they are. When i was that age living in Arizona, MANY kids carried guns to school and used to show them off, and trade them for bikes, cd players, and other stuff. Sign of the times I guess.

[jcboogiebear]

To Crime Scene KC : hey dipshit! With a capable cyclical rate of
approximately 20 ( yes,TWENTY ) rounds a
SECOND, how would you possibly categorize the MAC ( Military Armament Corporation ) as less dangerous than an UZI ??? Obviously you watch too much Goddamned CSI. This particular weapon fired by someone who's never fired anything full auto would be virtually impossible to control....Making it EXACTLY as dangerous if not more so !!!!

[jcboogiebear]

And to clear the air.....as a licensed gunsmith....YES, they are considered to be in fact "MACHINE PISTOLS" and I suggest you contact their respective dealers and manufacturers for added clarity.........with the correctly ID'd MAC,
not in fact a tec9 nor an UZI, it could prove more dangerous solely based on its minute form factor as there would be less gun for some newb to hold onto.....some kid just got killed at a licensed full auto shootoff b/c he lost control of the gun and it backspun on him....

[ffxiv gil]

manufacturers for added clarity.........with the correctly ID'd MAC