Few know the workings of the fabled “long pistol.”
Even with all the resources of the internet, the average person stands little chance of decrypting the “point weapon” and “pull the trigger” cypher.
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So my friend who lives in Buffalo posted this pic.
I do not understand what I am seeing. It has to be a trick of the angles and the third leg of the tripod is hidden, right? There is no way this is some standing BIPOD or Tripod with only two legs on the roof and it some how balanced up there on the edge, and then the idiot walked away. If so, there’s your problem.
If it is a tripod with three legs down, if that bag didn’t have much in it, I guess I could see a gust of wind catching it and tilting it forward. With a heavy barrel and suppressor, it is going to be very front heavy already.
ETA
Right. A cop’s Glock has no external safety, and one could just pick it up and shoot someone if dropped, not knowing shit about fuck.
Bolt action like this will have a safety, which most people could figure out (usually a cross bar or a flip switch at the back near the bolt). And anyone who plays video games knows how a bolt action rifle works.
Granted, the likelihood of a random person deciding to start shooting people because a gun literally fell in front of them is low. But it also isn’t some how not dangerous nor so mystical someone couldn’t figure out how to use it. 
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That photo is mind-blowing. It’s like the rifle is on a photography tripod on it’s highest setting. And if those fron two legs are on the ledge of the roof…even if the wind knocked it over, it didn’t really. It was set up to fall over with the slightest breeze or if a tiny little bird landed on it.
As the saying goes, it’s not an accident when there’s this much negligence.
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Actually is Buffalo. I don’t know why they mentioned New York in the headline
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He said an ongoing investigation by the department indicated that a heavy wind gust caused the rifle to fall from its perch and off the edge of the building.
He does not believe the officer mishandled the firearm.
Um, isn’t that statement mishandling a firearm?
I’ve set my camera up like the photo above with a weight on the tripod and I still don’t walk away from it.
I’ve also taken photos from on top of buildings with the same tripod setup. If there are people below the tripod and camera are fastened securely to me or the building.
I’m so paranoid of my equipment hurting someone so I take extra precautions.
So forget it’s a gun, it’s a large heavy object over people. Put a safety line on it.
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I’ve never seen such a rifle - but how strong is the wind in Buffalo where it can blow a gun off the roof?
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They’re lucky it didn’t discharge when it hit the ground.
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Yeah, note that the right leg is thicker than the left. The third leg is behind it.
The problem I see is that the sniper is open to fire from an anti-sniper sniper. Tactically speaking, no one should know he is there.
This is Security Theater.
I think the Cop Capo was shifting blame.
The rifle looks pretty well balanced to me…
That ‘gust of wind’ is the Cop Capo blowing smoke up peoples’ asses.
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Isn’t that gear or ballast hanging between the legs meant to secure and stabilize? I’m referring to the tripod,not the sniper.
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Why has no one mentioned leprechauns yet? It’s magically suspicious!
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Sure, but as @Mister44 pointed out, maybe it wasn’t sufficiently ballasted.
I don’t see a mere ‘gust of wind’ sufficient to knock the whole thing off the roof.
Maybe the sniper was three sheets to the wind & knocked it off the roof, instead.
Saint Paddy’s Day, & all…
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Probably working on their jarate. (CW: gross)
Doesn’t take much, especially when you have a 15-odd pound steel pipe perched on top of essentially a video camera tripod, with a weighted pendulum hanging below it…
Yup- putting snipers on the roof should be an exercise in How Not To Be Seen, and that’s about as obvious as a sore thumb sticking out.
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People in the first three rows will have weapons dropped on them!
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Or the ballast started swaying in the breeze. It’s definitely possible to get unlucky with your load weight / pendulum length / wind speed combinations. Which is why ballast shouldn’t swing freely if you can avoid it.
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Well, in general, rifles are front heavy. That’s where most of the steel is, and the suppressor at the end is probably a little under a pound, adding to that. We already have evidence that it wasn’t manned 100% of the time. Occam’s razor and all, I think it’s more likely a gust of wind moved it enough for a foot to slip off, or to tilt forward, than someone manning it somehow dropped it.Though it could be a third option where someone bumped it. I’m not taking anyone’s word for it, though, as I am sure they are covering their own asses.
At any rate, isn’t wasn’t stable enough to keep from falling from what ever force moved it.
Mostly, yes, though it may be enough to dissuade some people.
Like the splash zone at Sea World?
So we are keeping St. Patrick’s day revelers from getting out of hand by threatening them with potential death from an overhead sniper? Is that what we are talking about?
If that is what we are talking about, things are even more fucked up than they previously seemed.
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people who commit mass shootings generally seem pretty happy to off themselves or die by cop. i really can’t conceive of an instance where someone would be like, oops the cops are here, guess i won’t murder anyone after all
and with today’s guns, it’s so easy to kill large numbers of people in such a short time frame, that in the time to come back from that smoke break, ready the weapon, find the shooter, and kill them and only them… well, it’s not even a real solution
so it’s really worse than theater even. it sends the message to the general public: be terrified of us. we the police can kill you at any time, and there’s nothing you can do about it
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So every time a bunch of Americans get together to celebrate some occasion or other, the police sit on top of buildings and aim sniper rifles at them?
Good lord, what a way to live.
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