The Orlando police department held their annual gun turn in program yesterday, offering to accept – with no questions asked – any unwanted guns in exchange for a pair of sneakers or a gift certificate. They call it a huge success – but the media is playing up one of the more unusual things turned in. A "missile launcher".
Orlando emptied its bureau drawers and closets Friday of more than 300 unwanted guns — and one surface-to-air missile launcher.
The shoulder-fired weapon showed about 6 p.m. when an Ocoee man drove to the Florida Citrus Bowl to trade the 4-foot-long launcher for size-3 Reebok sneakers for his daughter.
"I didn't know what to do with it, so I brought it here," explained the man, who said he found the missile in a shed he tore down last week. "I took it to three dumps to try to get rid of it, and they told me to get lost."
After hefting the weapon designed to blow jets out of the sky, police spokeswoman Sgt. Barbara Jones commented, "I tell you, you never know what you're going to get."
They have a picture. I can't match it with any pictures of surface to air missile that I am aware of, maybe someone more familiar with those weapons systems can. But it looks like only the tube – no sights or anything else, so it really wasn't a ready to use launcher. The media kind of neglects to tell you that. But gun collectors will downright wail when they read about some of the guns that were collected – and will be destroyed. A pristine M1A Garand rifle for one.
UPDATE: My friends over Just Barking Mad have a commenter on their site who has identified the thing in the picture as a (probably empty) shipping container for an anti-armor TOW missile – not any kind of a launcher. Especially for a surface to air missile. Yet another false story.
I just took a look at the photo, and that thing is definitely not a surface to air missile launcher. In fact, it is not a weapon at all. It is a shipping container for a piece of ordnance that gets discarded when the round is removed.
And I’m pretty sure there was no round in the thing either.
Marcus
It reminds me of the container for the 106mm Recoilless rifle. IIRC they were shipped four in a wooden crate. These tubes were then strapped to the ready rack on a Jeep or M113.
I thought shipping tube as well. It certainly is not a “launcher” as it is shown in the picture.
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Destroying some of those rare weapons is a crime. Perhaps such items could be auctioned off by the police. It would save tax money and get rid of items which are highly unlikely to be used illegally, or at all.
We’ve got a reader over at our site that identifies the object in question as a shipping container for a TOW missile. A TOW missile is an anti-armor missile, but it is defintely not “shoulder fired”–the things have to be mounted on large tripods when dismounted (which they rarely are ever employed in this manner) and are typically vehicle mounted. This is due to the weight of the system which includes the sights and the round itself.
Reader “etm” also goes on to explain that the manner the officer is carrying the container indicates that it is empty (we readily agree), as a TOW missile weighs approximately 55 pounds.
So, bottom line, this is not a shoulder fired missile. It is a completely inert, hollow casing.
Nice to know that some guy got a pair of sneakers for it though. The taxpayers really got their money’s worth on that one.
Thanks, Marcus. I just updated.