Army, police to trace status of missile launcher at gun buyback
SEATTLE - Police are tracking down the history of a nonfunctional missile launcher that showed up at a Saturday weapons buyback event in Seattle.
Detective Mark Jamieson says a man standing outside the buyback event bought the military weapon for $100 from another person at the event. The item, a single-use device that had already been used, is a launch tube assembly for a Stinger portable surface-to-air missile.
Several people at the buyback then notified officers they had seen the man was walking around outside the area with the missile launcher.
Officers spoke to the man, who was cooperative, and told police that he had just purchased it. Officers then inspected the launcher and determined that it was unarmed. However, police confiscated the weapon because it is considered a controlled military item, Jamieson said.
He says detectives will notify the Army Criminal Investigation on Monday.
Jamieson says the launcher is not supposed to be available to civilians through any surplus or disposal program offered by the government. He says it is most likely that the launch tube was previously obtained unlawfully from the military, and would likely be returned to Joint Base Lewis-McChord for the Army to dispose of.
The man who purchased the launcher agreed to accept a gift card in exchange for the weapon in case it is not returned to him.
Detective Mark Jamieson says a man standing outside the buyback event bought the military weapon for $100 from another person at the event. The item, a single-use device that had already been used, is a launch tube assembly for a Stinger portable surface-to-air missile.
Several people at the buyback then notified officers they had seen the man was walking around outside the area with the missile launcher.
Officers spoke to the man, who was cooperative, and told police that he had just purchased it. Officers then inspected the launcher and determined that it was unarmed. However, police confiscated the weapon because it is considered a controlled military item, Jamieson said.
He says detectives will notify the Army Criminal Investigation on Monday.
Jamieson says the launcher is not supposed to be available to civilians through any surplus or disposal program offered by the government. He says it is most likely that the launch tube was previously obtained unlawfully from the military, and would likely be returned to Joint Base Lewis-McChord for the Army to dispose of.
The man who purchased the launcher agreed to accept a gift card in exchange for the weapon in case it is not returned to him.
The guy who was trying to sell this launcher was shown on the nightly news discussing it's purchase with another guy. Perhaps they need to watch the news.
I'm not opposed to the gun buy back.
I for one will sleep better tonight knowing that a cardboard tube was taken "off the streets".Â
KOMO, when this guy gets his cardboard tube back, are you going to report that it was perfectly legal to own and harmless?
Strange with all those guns showing up in one place no one was shot is a shooting spree. As for where he got the missile launcher...I wonder if it's in the 1300 pages of the "Fast and Furious" investigation that was sealed by executive order the congress was about to get them in their hand?
I bet at this very moment they are wasting even more of the tax payers money.
finger printing the guns to find out who they used to belong to.......
So much for the "no questions asked"
Wasn't there supposed to be some sort of amnesty for the people who turned in guns?
@Waif
Looks like the amnesty is true to this point. Will be interesting to see if the surface to air Red Eye launcher is considered demilitarized per ATF requirements. The person could get it back if so. Â The Street Sweeper Shotguns were classified as Destructive Devices by the ATF retroactively, after they had already hit the retail market. Â People who owned them prior to the reclassification had until 2001 to register them with the ATF and obtain the required tax stamp. Â If the folks who turned them in had not registered the street sweepers with the ATF and didn't possess the tax stamp, they could have been arrested on the spot and would be looking at a 10 year federal prison sentence and a $250,000 fine.
Great work, officer. Gonna get to the bottom of where the rocket launcher came from. Man---you guys are AWESOME!!!
my god! it has a pistol grip! imagine the destruction it would have caused if it had a flash suppressor or collapsible stock!! seattle would have been wiped off the map if that were the case. its amazing no one died with that thing around. let alone all the other guns out there! if you cant tell this was sarcasm then you are as stupid as these people selling their guns for a measly 100 bucks. sure, a handfull of them wanted to see them destroyed so no hand will touch them again, but the majority saw dollar signs for something they didnt use. they could have gotten minimum double that for any junk gun they had there.
712 guns were "bought back" at the event.
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364 rifles, 348 pistols
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3 "street sweeper" shotguns
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1 "missile launcher"Â
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$68,000 in gift cards
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 @lakeview Just think, they could almost hire one more officer with that money.
95.50 each on avereage...
Why are you not reporting on the "mini-gun show" that developed next to the line of people turning in guns? A lot of people came down there with cash to buy the guns for market prices rather than see perfectly good guns be melted down by a misguided gun buy back effort. A lot of people in that line took the cash and sold their guns instead of turning them in. You call yourselves a "news" outlet, how about telling the WHOLE STORY?
@Scott Collier - they have reported on it. Just apparently not enough for you.
It was a Red Eye missile, predecessor to the Stinger (Red Eye 2). Entirely legal to own, unreloadable, and inert. It was auctioned off by the military. https://www.buymilsurp.com/us-xm41e2-redeye...ert-p-7720.html
@Ameso Looks like the guy will be getting his laucher back..
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You can buy those sorts of things from any gun surplus store- usually online.
Good idea now any one with these will just keep them or give them away to get rid of them cause they don't want it tracked to them or someone they know.  Making citizens trust the authorities even less.
Next time we'll keep our guns and you can go scratch!
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You LIARS.....You said NO QUESTIONS ASKED!!!! NO QUESTIONS ASKED!!! LIARS!!!
Turn the guns in no matter what kind, type or where it came from for a so called gift card with NO QUESTIONS ASKED!!
LIARS!!!
 @reelin21 Ummm except that if you ACTUALLY READ the article, you would see that this was a sale that happened outside the event:
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"Detective Mark Jamieson says a man standing outside the buyback event bought the military weapon for $100 from another person at the event."
 @BluefireJaguar  @reelin21 Good god you copy and paste nazi,  knock it off If you read it you would understand the police bought it from that individual and gave him the 100 gift card so they did buy it back under this program.
 @APenny4MyThoughts  @BluefireJaguar  @reelin21 It sounds to me that he was forced to sell it back.  So back to the original comment..."No questions asked" apparently not.
"The man who purchased the launcher agreed to accept a gift card in exchange for the weapon in case it is not returned to him."
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If it is like one that was sold at auction.. then I certainly hope that he gets his launcher back...
@APenny4MyThoughts, @reelin21, Maybe both reelin21 and Apenny should both be the ones to READ the article, since the guy that had it confiscated was OUTSIDE of the buy-back area and had PAID 100 DOLLARS for the tubeâ¦. not RECEIVED a gift card for 100.00 from the policeâ¦. Must admit, there are some pretty stupid people out there, but I donât know of too many that would give up US Greenbacks (cash to you young ones) that can be used even when there isnât any electricity for a more restrictive âgift cardâ⦠And the idea for cut and pasting is to get those too lazy to read right to the part of the story they refused to see on their ownâ¦.. QUOTE (and I didnât know that THIS Jew was a Nazi): "Detective Mark Jamieson says a man standing outside the buyback event bought the military weapon for $100 from another person at the event." UNQUOTE
No questions asked. Yea right never trust any one in authority these days. They all lie and try to remove guns from us so we don't use them on them.
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@Telman@
Ummm except that if you ACTUALLY READ the article, you would see that this was a sale that happened outside the event:
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"Detective Mark Jamieson says a man standing outside the buyback event bought the military weapon for $100 from another person at the event."
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Buy-backs are misguided, feel-good initiatives, but this undermines even that.Â
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So, anybody holding a weapon, ammunition, whatever, who turns it in to a buy-back, may find themselves the focus of an investigation?
@newspuppy
Ummm except that if you ACTUALLY READ the article, you would see that this was a sale that happened outside the event:
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"Detective Mark Jamieson says a man standing outside the buyback event bought the military weapon for $100 from another person at the event."
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@newspuppy you missed the point, he didnt give it to the police for the buy back. He sold it on the street outside the buy back.
 @Jimmy Kammerer  @newspuppy Oh no! Just think what could have happened if that paper-weight ended up in the wrong hands!
Finding these on the streets are alarming but not surprising. I know for a fact that the military has very poor inventory control. There are many military personnel out there with these souvenirs, things that should never be out in the public but they do make their way out here. There are millions worth of equipment and weapons that go missing each year, oh well taxpayers will pay for it.
@Nathan Boi And would you mind please telling me why I should have my tax dollars wasted on wages that would be spent for the military to track disposable GARBAGE as ALL used Redeye/Stinger tubes are?
 @Nathan Boi These inert tubes are sold online and through army-surplus stores. They are fun to look out but not dangerous at all...Â
Just think how scary that empty tube would be if it had a bayonet lug on it.
@cactivet And let's all be thankful that it didn't have a flash suppressor.Â
Didn't one of these also show up at a buy back in LA recently?Â
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I don't know I sold my Iver johnston.22 rev for 100$ most I've ever been offered is 20$ I also traded with guy my gift card +100$ cash for .40 XD it is sweet. ran the #s and it's even clean. win win.
I hope they have  it next year. There were many people on the side picking the good stuff for cash. junk all went forward.
So what? It doesn't affect you in any way.
When I was a kid (40's and 50.s) you could walk into any War Surplus store and buy a 3.5 rocket launcher (Bazooka) or for that matter a tripod mounted water cooled machine guy with no firing pin. YOU NEVER HEARED ABOUT SONE IDIOT USING ONE THO.
 @whitewings2003 Cool, can you imagine how a Gatling gun would look in the entry way of your home?  Quite the politically incorrect conversation piece, although it would go quite well with the other brass objects.  Antiques make fine decorations in ones home.....
@K. Coleman @whitewings2003 I'm a Civil War Reenactor here in Washington State and I know two people who DO own Gatlings... One is mounted on a flimsy-looking surveyor's tripod and the other on a wheeled artillery trunion. Neither would easily fit into a living room :)
@K. Coleman @whitewings2003 Well, if you want to see one in person, Coleman, check out the Washington Civil War Association website and calendar. Not being the weapon's owner, I can't guarantee that one the Gatlings will be at any given event, but I do know that a crewman aboard one of the Federal units, the USS Tahoma Shore Party, does own one and takes it to events. When it's there, he usually fires it for demonstration purposes.
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I should also say that this is a good time to look into the Civil War, it being the 150th anniversary period. I myself will be spending a week at the 150th Gettysburg this July.
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Here is the link:
http://wcwa.net/events/schedule.htm
 @svensson  @whitewings2003Â
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Now this is a Gatling even AhhNold would love... but it's a little over-kill for home protection! Â ;)
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@K. Coleman @whitewings2003 Well the one that I've examined in detail has a magazine feeding system and fed from the top of the piece.
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It employs fixed iron cartridges that can be reloaded with black powder, similar to a Colt Army revolver. A percussion cap fits on a nipple at one end and roughly 70 grains of powder [the same as a rifled musket] is tamped at the other with a very light paper wad holding the powder in place. When the powder ignites, the paper is consumed.
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Once fired and cleaned, the iron cartridges are reloaded. A quick google search will tell you all about it.
 @K. Coleman , I imagine they do, âcause Iâve seen Gunny Ermey do a segment on them and fire one on his show âLock and Loadâ.
 @svensson  @whitewings2003 Do they make blanks for those?  Imagine the racket you could make on the 4th of July... if they worked.
I thought this was supposed to be no questions asked?Â
Military hardware in the hands of a civilian causes the need for questions. It is outside the scope of a "gun." You notice, however, they didn't hassle the guy over it.
Could you imagine Charlie Wilson's kinfolk bringing the Stinger tube on his wall to a buyback?Just sayin'...
[I'm referring to TX Congressman Charlies Wilson from the 70's and 80's; he just recently passed away. Read 'Charlie Wilson's War by George Crile]