#Blackmarket

A new year brings about the first of January’s Underground Arms Watch installment – a look into criminally made and modified firearms seized by police and security services worldwide.

In this article, we’ll present to you the first part of Underground Arms Watch December edition’s look into notable seizures of criminally manufactured and modified weapons seized off the streets. Read last month’s post here.

There certainly exist a large number of myths and misconceptions about small arms in Afghanistan. Everything from the names of certain firearms available to how they are perceived in the country has been over exaggerated or hyped up to the point of no return. Surprisingly there are almost as many myths in the country of Afghanistan itself than those that exist in the United States and Europe. Some of these are quite harmless but others involve safety and safe firearms handling which can at times lead to negligent discharge and death.

If you looked at this photograph and thought to yourself, “This looks like a 40x46mm Low Velocity grenade launcher, but it is unlike any launcher currently used by any Military/LE force”, then you’d be halfway to a solid conclusion. However if you are really into Airsoft, you’d probably instantly recognize it for what it is, a Mad Bull Airsoft grenade launcher made in Taiwan. But then what in the world is it doing on a “Real Steel” AR rifle? In Iraq?

Guns ending up on the “black market” is generally bad for everyone. These are typically used in crimes, and each year, the BATFE releases a state by state report of firearm traces which includes firearms that have been recovered from crime scenes (and have purchased both legal and illegally) in the previous year.  The data for 2014 was released this past August actually.

Whatever one thinks of the proliferation of firearms, it’s a fact that the technology needed to make reliable, effective weapons is well in hand. Even at the lowest levels of industrial capability firearms are practical, manufacturable items, and this includes those capable of fully automatic fire. Weapons with a great deal of firepower can be made from simple, off-the-shelf items at home. Proof of this can be seen in the numerous improvised firearms that continually turn up all over the world.

Here is another unknown machine pistol that I’ve posted a short write up on via the ARES blog. A number of these have been appearing in the hands of Italian and British crime groups, one even being seized in a Real IRA weapons cache. Along with the ‘R9-Arms’ pistol It appears most likely to be Croatian in origin with obvious false branding. It most definitely has nothing to do with Intratec or the real TEC-9 pistol.