This is a relatively short post, as I don’t currently have time to address some of the larger issues, like what should be the response when someone who shares at least some of the same beliefs you do commits a heinous act. Just as the violence of John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry did not automatically invalidate the moral underpinnings of the anti-slavery cause, Anders Behring Breivik’s rampage does not automatically invalidate concerns about the Islamization of Europe.
There’s been a lot of interest in what sort of weapon Breivik used. Though police have not released any details on what weapons were involved in his killing spree, in line with some comments here, Breivik appeared to own a Ruger Mini-14 and a Glock 17. The Ruger Mini-14 may be the gun shown here:
Though one knowledgeable emailer thinks it could just as easily be an AR-15 or an AK-47 with mounting rails, tricked out with what appears to be a mount (more below), a light, a bayonet, and maybe a laser sight? Though you don’t often see one mounted so far off the center line. He’s got so much tactical bling on there it looks like he’s trying to win a contest for Most Crap Mounted Off a Forward Rail. Seems deeply impractical. Though if it was tricked out like that during his rampage, obviously it wasn’t impractical enough.
Dwight located what appears to be the actual mount shown in that picture: the Botech Tactical Grip Pod Automatic Tactical BiPod Foregrip. As the animation on the product page illustrates, the two parts of the bipod telescope out to a standard bipod, making it a lot less useless than it seems in the picture.
I’m not enough of a gun expert to tell you what the light, scope, etc. shown are. Feel free to comment below if you do.
The Ruger Mini-14 Tactical Rifle fires 5.56mm NATO/.223 Remington, which is the same cartridge usually used in other “assault rifles” like the AR-15 and the M-16.
The Glock-17, despite some media scare-mongering, is a solid, reliable, bog-standard 9mm automatic pistol notable only for lighter weight achieved through the use of composites.
Both will indeed kill you quite dead in the hands of a knowledgeable shooter. Then again, wearing a police uniform, alone on an island with unarmed teenagers for more than an hour, Breivik probably could have killed just about as many with a bolt-action M1903 Springfield rifle.
Tags: active shooter, Anders Behring Breivik, Crime, Dan Brown, Glock-17, Guns, Jihad, Oslo, Ruger Mini-14, shooting, Utoya
One other point I wanted to make about Mister How Much Useless Crap Can I Hang Off a Rail 2011:
What the frack is up with the wetsuit? Did he think he was some sort of half-assed Norwegian equivalent of the Navy SEALs?
That isn’t a Ruger Mini 14. It is a full on M1A and it doesn’t use NATO 5.56 rounds, but a 7.62 NATO round.
Snowflakes in Hell is also repeating the claim that he used a Mini-14, based apparently on a Huffington Post article. (I didn’t follow the link.)
Jim: I own an M1A, and I don’t remember the front sight being that close to the muzzle, or the front sight having those wings on the side. Then again, what I own is a regular M1A, not the SOCOM Scout or other variants; are you thinking this might be a Scout variant? Or something aftermarket, given everything else he’s already done to that defenseless rifle?
It’s not an M1A. The hand guard of the Mini-14 is distinctly visible in this picture. While a Mini-30 would appear cosmetically similar, the shape of the magazine suggests against it being one, since a Mini-30 magazine that size has a more pronounced curve.
[…] to add: Hey, while I’m thinking of it, I do want to point folks to this discussion at Battleswarm. I haven’t had a lot to say about Breivik, mostly because other smarter bloggers are saying […]
Not a knowledgeable contact that said that was anything other than a Mini-14. AK, AR, and Mini are completely different looking and that is clearly a Ruger.