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I was reading a story about a letter sent by Republican congressmen calling out President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder demanding enforcement of existing firearms laws before consideration of any new laws. However, that isn’t what caught my eye. Look at the picture below of firearms confiscated in Chicago. The photo is credited to the Associated Press and I presume it is from some sort of show and tell put on by the Chicago Police Department.
My eye immediately went to the top rifle in the photo. I see the carrying handle from both an AR and the FAL. then I look at the handguard and front sight. It is an FAL! What the hell?
I have never seen a FN-FAL or any of its variants with an AR carry handle/rear sight scabbed on to it. I wish I had a better photo but it appears that it is part of the dust cover.
That the firearm was confiscated I don’t doubt. However, I would be really shocked to hear that it from confiscated from either a crime scene or taken from some gang banger. If you told me it came from a crime scene in Sao Paulo or Buenos Aires I might believe it but not Chicago. Moreover, it doesn’t look like the only one in the photo. Check out the stock of the rifle that is under the leg of the Franken-FAL’s bipod. It appears to me a FAL as well.
If you’ve ever come across something like this, I’d be interested in knowing more.
That IS a Fraken-FAL, and I've never seen anything that looks like that!
Another picture from a different angle is here.
@geoffb: Thanks for posting the link to another picture of the same display. It is interesting to note that the picture is almost 3 years old.
Looks like Argentine open ear front end on a non-bipod cut barrel. The way the rifle is rotated 90 degrees with the bipod seated on the table shows it's a ersatz mount of some wackiness.
At first I thought it was a DSA picatinny dustcover with a detachable AR carry handle. But now I'm not so sure as the dustcover doesn't go back far enough. No way in hell your getting a proper cheek wield and sight properly with that monstrosity. Full of win!
@Anon: I thought it might be the picatinny dustcover as well as I have one on my FAL. Still I don't think so.
There was a discussion of it on an FAL site in 2010. Strangely the pictured display also crops up in a piece on 4000 illegal arms having been seized in Karachi Pakistan in 2011.
@Geoffb: I can see it showing up on FALFiles. I'm confused about it showing up in Pakistan. Thinking about it showing up in Pakistan makes more sense than Chicago.
It was a July 2010 bust in Chicago.
"The investigation by Chicago police officers and FBI agents included the purchase from the suspects of weapons that they themselves had purchased in Wisconsin, Indiana and other Midwestern states, and in Europe and South America"
AP has 4 images of the guns here. Their quick save images are somewhat clearer than the ones on the web pages and if you have an account with them they will sell you a large 15 mega-pixel image.