Received this observation from an SSD reader.
Hi; I been monitoring your website for years.
I thought you may like to see this. More than 700 comments and not one about the fact that the magazine is empty…
Nothing is dumber than an empty translucent magazine.
I had to scratch my head as to where this image had shown up. And then I looked at the rest of the images.
And now for the rest of the story…
What say you?
Screenshots used for illustrative purposes only.
Are my eyes decieving me or do I see BBs?
I have been using a traslucent magazines for decades.
Number One, if some hostile is so close as to be able to see your magazine, specially from the side, you are in serious trouble anyway.
Number Two, when inserted in the weapon, only the bottom of the magazine can be seen, so it is imposible to know whether the magazine is still half full, or of course, a last round is chambered.
That magazine doesn’t actually look empty though. The rounds don’t stack all the way to the bottom on a loaded mag. The very bottom is occupied by spring and follower. You can see what appears to be a black follower at the bottom as other wise the entire bottom of the mag would be lighter in color from light passing through it. Instead the front a rear are black.
It is also hard to tell because the folding stock is blocking most of the mag but it looks like there are the base of cartridges inside visible at the spine of the magazine starting about where the stock starts obscuring part of the mag. More pixels would help.
I agree with Rob’s assessment.
On a tangential note, I remember seeing armed police in Gatwick Airport in the UK several years that were armed with G-36Cs. As their stocks were in the unfolded and locked position the mags of their weapons could be very clearly seen – and it was also clear that the 30-round mags only had about 5 rounds in them.
If they only had 5 rounds you wouldn’t have been able to see anything. With a G36 rounds only start to be visible out of the magazine well at something like the 14th round. It used to be standard to load magazines to 15-20 for some roles like airport police but those days are long gone with the current sort of terrorist threats. The logic was that this was a good middle ground between available rounds and limiting the damage that somebody can do if the weapon is taken or lost. There also used to be more concerns about spring life in roles where the magazines are filled and basically never actually used. You also have to bear in mind that in some cases this was a step up if they were armed with MP5SFs with the 15 rounders.
True – what I meant to write was that only 5 rounds were visible beyond the magwell.
Sometimes the downloading came from old written orders for guard duty spelling out 20 rounds. As in the G3 or old MP5 magazines and nobody bothered adjusting the orders.
Highest res I can find:
https://images.axios.com/XSF_WXZsOkD2hC_iKG-nDJsmEIQ=/2019/07/23/1563865541355.jpg
The follower looks to be at the bottom of the magazine, thus the magazine is fully loaded. There’s also the (possible) faint glint of the back of a case on the trailing edge of the magazine.
Article from the photographer himself, with more images:
https://widerimage.reuters.com/story/guatemalan-mother-begs-soldier-to-let-her-enter-us
“The soldier displayed no overt aggression during the nine-minute encounter with Perez and her son. Still, the power dynamics apparent in the image resonated with criticism of the treatment migrants are receiving during the clampdown by Mexico.”
I say it’s not Mexico’s job to protect our border, it is our responsibility. Mexico can let whoever they like walk through their property and to blame another country for our illegal immigration problems is a sham. Our corrupt politicians in Washington have failed us, probably for most of our lives. Now we put out 4 billion worth of aid to the border, essentially like granny putting out food bowls that attracts more stray cats. I read a story on OANN a few months ago where DHS were getting the migrants at the border and busing them further into our country.
I don’t care how many rounds a Mexican national guard has in his magazine, this picture is pro-illegal immigration propaganda. Our guys should be behind a good wall with full magazines, but we’re still waiting on that of course…
But hey, the stock market can make some new records every time they fire up the money printers, the fed (not federal, no reserves) about to lower rates again, supposedly during the “greatest economy…”. The lawmakers and their connected entities are gonna ride it until the wheels fall off and what will we be left with? 100M new D voters and more pressure on already over-burdened, under-funded system.
The mag just looks a little downloaded to me. May be filled with 25 black dummy rounds for all i know. Good day, gents.
That is clearly a staged propaganda photo. I can’t believe you posted this garbage. Their clothing, the kids face, the angle, it’s all crap. If you think that’s a real photo, you are crazy.
Being from MSNBC I would have to agree that there is a high likelihood of that photo being completely staged as more mainstream media propaganda.
If my comment ever gets through moderation, I posted the original Reuter’s article, written by the photographer himself and containing additional photos.
TLDR: the mother and son actually end up running over the border while the National Guardsman was distracted and got scooped up by CBP and handed over to ICE. Probably not staged.
As one that believes the entire southern border should by the Berlin Wall 2.0, thanks for the BS post.
We were directed back in the 1980’s in Europe by President Reagan to only have empty magazines in our weapons and on us while guarding installations in the 3rd Armored Division. It was insane idea with the terrorist using car bombs and blowing up things during that time period. Numerous terrorist incidents in the 1980’s did not make the news in the states. It was November 1985 during Thanksgiving week that my unit was guarding a PX in Frankfort, West Germany for 5 or 7 days. We switched with a different unit and went back to our kaserne. The next day a car bomb blew up at that same PX we had just been guarding. We could not do anything with empty magazines if we had to against a terrorist at that time, since we did not have any ammunition in our magazines. It was just a show of force.
LOL… I remember those years well.
The German Federal Police raided a Rot Armee Faction safehouse about that same timeframe, and found carefully drawn maps of our kaserne in Darmstadt, with notes about when the guards changed, where they were posted, and all the rest. They notified us about it, and our leadership chose to raise the security level: We were given unloaded weapons instead of pick-mattock handles to carry, and they put ammo into the Staff Duty Officer’s safe for us to use if there was an incident…
As I recall, there was a single magazine of .45 for his pistol, and the guards were each allocated a three-round magazine, which we’d have to keep in a railroad-seal secured pouch if it were issued to us.
We lower enlisted scum went to back-slung weapons, and kept carrying the pick-mattock handles, some of which received impromptu modification with nails and drilled-and-filled lead in the heads. Our estimation was that by the time they got the ammo out to us on the outer perimeter, whatever it was that was happening would be long over…
Even german conscripts were on patrol with one loaded magazine around thier Kaserne. They must have really distrusted the enlisted GI soldier.
I’m not convinced this magazine is empty. Even when a magazine is full, there is still a spring, and follower that takes up some space at the bottom of the mag. This is not a good enough picture to know for sure.
Is that one of those xotioa xf-5 or what ever it is ?
The one they copied from the g36
Looks very much like on of those.
Sorry hit the key too early.
FX-05 Xiuhcoatl is what you are looking for. Easily identifiable by the shape of the folding stock and the general similarites to the H&K G36.
It is clearly fully loaded. I have handled G36s more than most other weapons and you can see it in a hires picture of it. You can see the cramped magazine spring at the bottom and the rear of the bullet going all the way down to the follower, even though you can only see a slight difference, it is clearly visible.
I made it easier for you to see by pointing it out.
https://imgur.com/I1tSpAn
Uh, who cares?