• @LovingHippieCat
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    1357 months ago

    “Geez, they’re not snipers! They’re just using the sniper scope as a telescope! They’re not for use as actual snipers! We just gotta use them to look at the evil protestors!”"

  • Jaysyn
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    1267 months ago

    Just a matter of time before we have another Kent State.

    • @PoorYorick
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      607 months ago

      My fear is that the next one will be worse.

          • @ShunkW
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            247 months ago

            Police have been taught that the only way to deal with anyone who doesn’t immediately comply is through violence. And increased militarization doesn’t help. We live in a police state but the narratives created by the ruling class have made people forget it

            • @[email protected]
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              157 months ago

              But what if a nuclear bomb drives a truck through the crowd and stabs everyone?? Please disregard the police beating and gassing people over there, think about how horrible it would be if a bad actor made it in there!

    • @malloc
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      537 months ago

      It was really close at UT. State police, city police, and national guard called in by spineless university president (Jay Hartzell).

      Fuck Jay Hartzell. Hope he gets recalled. No golden parachute.

      • @[email protected]
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        237 months ago

        The fact that no charges are being filed should result in a strong condemnation and accountability for the administration and the cops. You put everyone in danger when no crime was being committed. There won’t be, but there should be.

  • @solomon42069
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    7 months ago

    It feels like these protests are going to shape how the governments of the world will respond to mass unrest in the future.

    Or in other words - those in charge want the common person to be disempowered, to frame a peaceful protest as an act of terrorism so they can be more aggressive in future.

    Hopefully no one on either side does anything stupid.

    • @[email protected]
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      7 months ago

      These reactions by the US to a student protest are nothing new and the fact they haven’t sent in the army and killed anyone yet shows it’s not even as bad as it historically has been.

      Not everything a shithole like America does dictates what the rest of the world does.

      • @[email protected]
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        87 months ago

        they haven’t sent in the army and killed anyone yet shows it’s not even as bad as it historically has been.

        To be worse than Lukashenko is real achivement.

    • @RememberTheApollo_
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      237 months ago

      In the future?

      Ask any student population in the past who were shot, beaten, tasered, hosed down with water cannons, and jailed what they thought would happen to future protesters.

      The shape of silencing unrest, especially anti-war or liberal unrest, hasn’t changed at all. And it will look just the same a decade from now.

    • Uriel238 [all pronouns]
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      197 months ago

      If those snipers were to shoot someone, the protests would be twice the size the next day.

      Look what happened when Nixon, Reagan and Trump escalated violence in response to protests.

      Nixon’s in songs for killiing Ohioans.

      • @BreadstickNinja
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        237 months ago

        From Wiki, sadly: “President Richard Nixon, who is criticized in the song, won a landslide reelection in 1972, which included winning the 1972 United States presidential election in Ohio by a margin of over 21%.”

          • @AngryCommieKender
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            57 months ago

            You can’t gerrymander the presidential election. There are no districts in that election.

            You can however influence it with bribes, coercion, and intimidation.

            • @[email protected]
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              07 months ago

              You can’t gerrymander the presidential election.

              *in countries where voting for president means voting for president, not voting for someone who maybe will vote for president

              There are no districts in that election.

              States.

              You can however influence it with bribes, coercion, and intimidation.

              True.

        • Uriel238 [all pronouns]
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          17 months ago

          Yes. That was the election Nixon was actively cheating in, given that the Watergate commission was able to trace it right up to the president.

        • Uriel238 [all pronouns]
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          47 months ago

          It would totally be nice. That’s why it’s enshrined in the first amendment that you have the right to petition your representatives for the redress of grievances. Sadly, they do not act on those petitions (Professor Lessig has studies, and crabby calls and letters to your Senator have a net zero effect) which how protests escalate to civil disobedience (to sabotage and eventually civil war).

          But it’s interesting how quickly police are turning to anti-riot responses, and our government officials are supporting them. It’s noted in COIN (counter insurgency) that brutality against protests only increases public sympathy and support for the movement (which has been consistent with incidents in the past decade, the US unrest and protests after the killing of George Floyd in 2020 being a run of examples.) I suspect it’s less 4D chess and more like Trump being angry and wishing to assert his authority.

          But our officials, the plutocrats they serve and law enforcement all regard the US Public as the enemy, and have been consistent about it since the 9/11 attacks. It’s one of the factors that’s been driving us towards civil war, or the end of our democratic features and one-party autocracy.

    • @MataVatnik
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      187 months ago

      This shit has been going on for decades. I went through the Pittsburgh G20 more than a decade ago. Same shit.

    • @Fredselfish
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      117 months ago

      No one should allow their children to attend that school. Everyone protesting should unenroll and switch to better school.

      Also the administration should be fired and arrested for allowing school shooters on their fucking roof. What the fuck.

      • @piecat
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        47 months ago

        They don’t really have say. Blame the state government.

    • @ElmerFudd
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      77 months ago

      You can always count on a demented righty, often an off-duty cop, to show up dressed as a lefty to light a fire, break a window, or shoot someone. That’s why they’re always using that exact accusation against leftists, because they’re actually doing it.

  • @TheCelticPirate
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    7 months ago

    Tin soldiers and Nixon coming

    We’re finally on our own

    This summer I hear the drumming

    Four dead in Ohio

    Gotta get down to it, soldiers are cutting us down

    Should have been gone long ago

    What if you knew her and found her dead on the ground

    How can you run when you know?

    • Echo Dot
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      507 months ago

      Never has been. National anthem notwithstanding the United States has always been land of the richest getting what they want.

      Hell the entire history of the United States is basically, we want something so we’re going to have it, and if there’s inconvenient people in the way then those inconvenient people will go away or die. The US had race separation until as recently as the 1960s. Wherever was the freedom?

        • @AngryCommieKender
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          67 months ago

          That’s a remnant of the previous Cold War that we engaged in, it wasn’t supposed to be that way. The founding fathers specifically separated church and state.

          • @[email protected]
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            17 months ago

            That’s a remnant of the previous Cold War that we engaged in

            Really? All of this religiousness of brain is because other side of the Pacific Bathtub wasn’t religious?

            • @AngryCommieKender
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              37 months ago

              Really not sure what you’re asking, but yes, the current wave of fundamentalists and evangelicals is a backlash because the USSR was a non-religious state.

      • @QaspR
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        17 months ago

        Name a country where it is not the case that your first paragraph is true.

        • @molten_iron
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          27 months ago

          humans are naturally power hungry in everywhere and all the time. nothing will change for the benefit of the people and even if it does, it’s probably propoganda.

    • @TokenBoomer
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      67 months ago

      What? The “land of the free”?
      Whoever told you that is your enemy

      • whou
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        27 months ago

        Now something must be done
        About vengeance, a badge, and a gun

  • @profdc9
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    657 months ago

    This seems so incredibly ill-advised. If students become martyred by trigger-happy snipers, these protests will boil over into open violence. Imagine thousands of videos flooding social media in an instant showing student corpses. I fear that gasoline has been poured and matches are being lit everywhere.

    • @[email protected]
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      147 months ago

      There won’t be any meaningful amount of violence. People in the US are total bitches when it comes to actually fighting the system. At worst, there will be a riot, where the most predominant activity is looting, and then the National Guard will be called in and everyone will roll over like they always do.

        • @[email protected]
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          17 months ago

          I think we could deal with the National Guard if people were motivated enough. Even I’m surprised with the shit some people get their hands on here. There’s plenty of people that treat the Second Amendment like a religion, and plenty of others that love blowing shit up for fun.

      • @RizzRustbolt
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        57 months ago

        We’ll get some kickass industrial songs about it in 15 years though.

      • @[email protected]
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        17 months ago

        Totally not true lol. Jan 6th, LA riots of the 90s, the various riots during the height of BLM movements, Seattle, Unite the Right rally both sides.

        People are upset, they cause damage and even sometimes try to assassinate people. The US probably faces more domestic terrorism than most places.

        We have a very strong police state

        • littleblue✨
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          147 months ago

          The People didn’t cause damage in Portland as much as the fucking pigs lit fires and defaced buildings to then blame the protestors for it, FYI. Caught on video from multiple angles and everything, yet still nothing in the way of consequences. “Police state”, you say? It’s fascism in a candy wrapper.

          • @[email protected]
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            27 months ago

            Lol okay my point stands people are constantly in the streets fighting.

            Fascism is a police state, a police state is fascism.

            Why are you fuckin mad? lmfao

            • littleblue✨
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              7 months ago

              People are not “constantly in the streets fighting”, you nonce.

              There is also more to “fascism” than simply “police state”.

              Are you purposefully stupid, or just lazy? Smart money’s on you thinking your username was spelled with an “e” when it’s correctly spelled with an “a”.

              • @[email protected]
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                17 months ago

                you’re being dumb yes they are we can literally sit here all day and go through different ways people have attempted to resist the government from Waco and MOVE to the many many many many many domestic terrorist attacks. We can talk about civil rights movements from MLK to Black Panthers to BLM. Occupy Wall Street, Unite the Right Rally(counter protestors), numerous school demonstrations from Kent State to walk outs to what’s happening today for Palestine.

                They’re always fighting.

  • Wolfeh
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    627 months ago

    What is it with Ohio and murdering college protesters? (See: Kent State)

  • @zik
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    547 months ago

    We should treat them like snipers? ie. We should rush them and neutralise the threat they pose?

  • @Windex007
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    477 months ago

    I mean, obviously question: how does one treat them as if they are?

    (Make them say the quiet part out loud)

      • rigatti
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        347 months ago

        If everyone’s a sniper, we’re all safe.

        • @[email protected]
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          587 months ago

          That’s literally how it works, and the Black Panthers proved it a long time ago. The cops stay peaceful when the protesters are heavily armed and heavily organized, because cops are fucking cowards who don’t want an actual fight

          • @PM_Your_Nudes_Please
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            477 months ago

            Reposting this because it’s relevant here too: A scenario like this is what led to the formation of the Black Panthers during the civil rights era, and subsequently led to gun control laws being started by republicans. During the civil rights protests, people quickly realized that peaceful protests were violently broken. But heavily armed peaceful protests had police nervously watching from across the street.

            Because police had no qualms about firing into an unarmed crowd to get people to disperse. But when the entire crowd is armed to the teeth and can immediately return fire, the police are suddenly okay with watching from afar. This was the start of the Black Panthers; a group who organized heavily armed protests.

            When conservative lawmakers saw a bunch of heavily armed black people (and allies) on their front steps, and saw the police unwilling to break the protests, those conservative lawmakers got really fucking sweaty. So instead, they gave the police tools to arrest individual protestors. The Mulford Act was drafted and quickly passed. At the time, it was the most restrictive gun control law the country had ever seen. It was written by Ronald Reagan (yes, the same Ronald Reagan that the right uplifts as a paragon of conservative values,) and was supported by the NRA, (yes, the same NRA that lobbies for looser gun control laws in the wakes of school shootings.)

            This gave the police the power to arrest individual protestors after the fact. Instead of firing into the crowd to disperse the protest, they would wait for the protest to end, follow the protestors home, then kick in their front doors while they were having dinner with their families. (Remember all of the “don’t bring your cell phone to protests because police will arrest you a week or two later if your phone was pinged nearby” messaging during the pandemic protests? Yeah…)

            This led to the Black Panthers diving underground. They realized what was happening after protests, so they took efforts to guard their members’ identities. They pulled tactics straight out of anti-espionage textbooks. Randomized meeting places, so police couldn’t set up stings ahead of time. Code names, so arrested members couldn’t rat even if they wanted to. Fragmented info, so no one person (even the leaders) could take down the entire operation if busted. Coded messages. Dead drops. Et cetera, et cetera…

            We’re on a rocket trajectory straight down that same pipeline now.

          • rigatti
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            227 months ago

            The joke was more an extension of the argument ammosexuals like to make about everyone being safer when everyone is armed. A bit of a non-sequitur, but those are nice from time to time.

          • @AA5B
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            37 months ago

            I don’t know if it would go like that these days. Cops now have equipment to beat a small army. It’s insane that we let it get like this.

            We were so innocent back in the day - my bit of activism was protesting campus security getting certified as a police force. Did no good, so now every incident has someone bringing guns and looking to escalate

            • @[email protected]
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              7 months ago

              The US military with the fanciest equipment in existence at the time couldn’t even conquer Vietnamese or Afghan farmers. If protestors took the Black Panther approach and the cops did start shit, the cops would lose.

          • Bob
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            37 months ago

            I strongly disagree that not wanting an actual fight is cowardice. Turning up armed to intimidate unarmed people is cowardice.

            • @[email protected]
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              7 months ago

              Being willing to attack people who can’t or won’t fight back, but being afraid to attack people who will fight back (especially if they will do so effectively), is basically the definition of cowardice

              • Bob
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                37 months ago

                Ah well you should’ve said that to begin with, because I agree with that!

          • @[email protected]
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            17 months ago

            They, unironically, are not wrong. The problem is that they are usually on the fascist side, even or especially when they insist otherwise

  • ReallyKinda
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    7 months ago

    Love how the narrative went from “nah those can’t be snipers definitely spotters” to “snipers are commonplace at big events!” once it was confirmed. Also the fact that only msn and snopes have published anything about this (or is that just a search indexing problem?).

  • Dizzy Devil Ducky
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    367 months ago

    Can’t wait for a headline about them accidentally shooting an innocent person and then admin goes on the defensive, claiming that the snipers were only doing their job. That, or hush the grieving family by either paying them to shut up or flat out erase them by buying off the police.

  • @MataVatnik
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    307 months ago

    I don’t know why but this amuses me. An amateur can easily hit a target at 200 yards the size of a baseball using a 6.5 Creedmore. These snipers are extremely visible and exposed. I’m guessing an attacker or a mass shooter would probably not be thinking about taking out snipers though.

      • @MataVatnik
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        307 months ago

        True, I guess the point is to make a show of it

    • @Zehzin
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      27 months ago

      They are visible on purpose. They’re there as a message

  • 𝓔𝓶𝓶𝓲𝓮
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    7 months ago

    I think those are to protect from psychos that want to kill the protesters.

    Think about it, it would be idiotic for any crowd control “measures” and doesn’t make any sense otherwise.

    • @[email protected]
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      177 months ago

      Oh you sweet summer child.

      No. The cops ARE the psychos that want to kill the protesters.

      Just look at the past century of protests in America and how much “good” cops did vs how many innocents they hurt.

      • 𝓔𝓶𝓶𝓲𝓮
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        7 months ago

        Maybe touch the grass. No, seriously. Break from tankie doomerposting in some insane web bubble.

        I am scared to think how you must feel on a day to day basis if you believe they will do what exactly?

        It must suck to be you honestly.

        Doomerposting is all the rage nowadays but while I acknowledge things aren’t going that great some people take it a lil bit too far. Bordering on mental illness. I blame twitter

    • @Woozythebear
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      157 months ago

      This is fucking cope… I guess you lived in a cave during the BLM protests

      • @[email protected]
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        7 months ago

        Or lived in saner country.

        EDIT: for some reason I typed “like was” instead of “lived”

    • @[email protected]OP
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      27 months ago

      OK, so lets think this out. These are pointed at the crowd correct so lets assume the threat is from the crowd.

      You have some Ne’er-do-well in the crowd who is planing some type of trouble, you notice this person looking “dastardly” from your sniper nest. You radio in and get the go ahead to take the shot with your trusty Remington M700. You shoot centre mass as you have been trained to do and the villain drops like a puppet with its strings cut.

      You saved the day right? Oh no that is just the start, since the round fired was a 7.62x51mm NATO (there is no “rubber” round for this firearm) it went straight through the torso of that protester with a box knife and into and then back out of at least a few other people in the dense crowd (must be their fault for not wearing better body armour). The gunshot is still noticed even with the police issued silencer and at seeing the carnage the crowd does what crowds do, they stampede.

      After the chaos settles down the body count will be a lot higher then that one person with a box cutter could ever manage (not that you can even say they where going to do anything).

      These are not there to protect people, that is not their role, this is not an action movie.

      • 𝓔𝓶𝓶𝓲𝓮
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        7 months ago

        I imagine there are situations where benefits outweigh the risks. Probably not your interestingly creative scenario. But congratulations for your vivid depiction.

        • @[email protected]OP
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          157 months ago

          The issue is I can not even with my vivid imagination can think of a scenario where shooting into a crowd (where these teams have their rifles pointed) would have benefits that outweigh the risks.

          The use for sniper teams on roof tops is in VIP protection (as in fuck all the little guys as long as the important one is safe) and offensive actions.

          • 𝓔𝓶𝓶𝓲𝓮
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            7 months ago

            I don’t need to go back in time by far. Moscow shootings. One or four well positioned snipers could save some lives there.

            Probably someone in a car driving over protesters, someone shooting an automatic weapon. Any person or humanoid unleashing high explosive fragmentation devices.

            • @[email protected]OP
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              37 months ago

              In all these cases the teams would have to reaim outside of the crowd, and also unless they have been given permission to shoot at their discretion (oh please no) they need to call it in. Not really a great solution where the benefits outweigh the risks.

              And since no snipers saved the day in Moscow it does not really work as an example of snipers being used to defend a crowd. I also doubt with what we now know about the internal workings of the Russian federation I kinda doubt their snipers would have been fully capable.

              • 𝓔𝓶𝓶𝓲𝓮
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                7 months ago

                And yet they are always present during such events so some people that aren’t random internet experts, like us, must see the benefit.

                Your yearning for fitting this into narrative got the better out of you this time around. I blame twitter.

                • @[email protected]OP
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                  57 months ago

                  Never had a twat account, sorry. I am more coming at this from a gun nuts thinking, Oh and the complete absence of any evidence of sniper teams being used to save a crowd. But maybe I just am not looking hard enough.

          • @5gruel
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            27 months ago

            Or you know, like, deterrence.

              • @5gruel
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                87 months ago

                Yes and probably yes. But that answers why they are there.

      • @kerrigan778
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        67 months ago

        I think you either overestimate overpenetration at range or underestimate the training a sniper has on that very subject.

        • @[email protected]OP
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          7 months ago

          As someone who has shot this round, no I don’t think I am overestimating the penetration. Also as it turns out police (I think state troopers in this case) snipers operate at ranges of 100 yards or less according to the police https://www.police1.com/swat/articles/a-first-of-its-kind-effort-describes-police-sniper-use-of-force-engagements-in-us-j7JjrYjYZmPtsoMt/. I know of no way to magic a bullet fired into a crowd to not over penetrate and yes I checked if there was some sort of less lethal or low pen police round (I found none).

          Know your target and what is beyond it. This is basic firearm safety, but that seems to not be common in the US of A.

          • @kerrigan778
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            7 months ago

            There are a million low pen rounds, they’re called expanding hollow points or fracturing rounds. They are designed to dump all their energy in soft targets, they are ubiquitous in hunting.

            (And practically everyone has fired a 308 or equivalent, 300 win mag they are not)

            • @[email protected]OP
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              47 months ago

              Funny you should compare the round I am assuming they are using (just went with the current most common police rifle) to a 308 but not a 300 win mag. They use both the 308 and the 7.62x51 NATO from what I can look up.

              The 7.62x51 nato has more punch then a 308 and a bit less vilocity then a 300 win mag. Now if you where to compare it to a 30-06 or a 7.62x54R then yeah sure. The point is the police are not using anything more fancy then hollowpoint according to what little I can find https://oklahoma.gov/content/dam/ok/en/doc/documents/policy/section-04/040106aa.pdf and I don’t know any even slightly competent shooter (hunters more so) that would take the risk of that hollowpoint stopping at the first target with a 308 or hell even a .223.

              I think we are getting lost in the weeds but my point is you don’t set up sniper teams to protect people, you set them up to take people out or intimidate.

              • @kerrigan778
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                47 months ago

                You absolutely set up sniper teams to protect people, such as every US president in a long time and most major sports games. Obviously there is a risk in taking someone out like that and that risk is weighed before giving an order to fire. And I’m not comparing 308 to 7.62x51NATO arbitrarily, they are virtually identical rounds like 5.56 and .223

          • @[email protected]
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            -57 months ago

            Welp, thankfully you have a very easy way to identify if you’re right or if you’re wrong.

            If you wake up tomorrow morning and 24h news cycles are megaphoning the murder of innocent protestors, you were right.

            If nothing happens, you’ll learn you were wrong, and hopefully you’ll learn from it.

            • @[email protected]OP
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              47 months ago

              If nothing happens, you’ll learn you were wrong, and hopefully you’ll learn from it.

              How does this make me wrong? All I see is 40ish arrests so far and unless they save the day with some sniper shot my point still stands. I am not sure how you think if the police don’t kill people somehow that is an own. This is not a rational response to a protest unless you are in a place with very poor civil unrest or one that is not very free.

                • @[email protected]OP
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                  47 months ago

                  Looks like they just grabbed them. I was reading it might be the biggest mass protester arrest since the Vietnam era, but I am waiting for the final picture.

      • @aidan
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        47 months ago

        You saved the day right? Oh no that is just the start, since the round fired was a 7.62x51mm NATO (there is no “rubber” round for this firearm) it went straight through the torso of that protester with a box knife and into and then back out of at least a few other people

        High angle means it would likely go into the ground. Also could use hollow point though, I don’t know if police use hollow point on rifles.

        • @[email protected]OP
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          07 months ago

          They use various soft point rounds (you can’t really use hollow points on high velocity rifles). The rounds are basically hollow points with a plastic ballistic tip.

          I would not want to be behind someone shot with a .308 fragmenting round or not.

          Here is a video showing the sort of penetration at 100 yards (what distance police snipers shoot from)

          https://piped.video/watch?v=qB5OizvSPG4

      • KillingTimeItself
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        -17 months ago

        You saved the day right? Oh no that is just the start, since the round fired was a 7.62x51mm NATO (there is no “rubber” round for this firearm) it went straight through the torso of that protester with a box knife and into and then back out of at least a few other people in the dense crowd (must be their fault for not wearing better body armour). The gunshot is still noticed even with the police issued silencer and at seeing the carnage the crowd does what crowds do, they stampede.

        it depends on how densely packed the people are and how high the approach angle of the bullet is, at 45 degrees, in center mass, it’s only grazing a foot or two before being at knee level lol.

  • @LaunchesKayaks
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    197 months ago

    They’re just business men with business plans. They’re totally not cops.