every american should own a tank

constitutional rights

Predatory driving and driving in a dangerous manner sound remarkably similar. If you can legally own your own tank in Australia I'm totally moving.

Privately owned, but not by the crazy driver.

"THE owner of a 1967 British tank used to ram seven mobile phone towers in Sydney's west on the weekend says his Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) is "trashed" - but he has vowed to repair it.

Owner Greg Morris said he was devastated to learn that his former employee, John Robert Patterson, 45, of Dharruk, had allegedly stolen the tank and used it to attack seven mobile phone towers in two hours early yesterday morning."

[www.news.com.au],21985,22078260-5005961,00.html

Well sucks you be you guys, because I plan on owning a tank, and there's nothing against the law with that! I don't think i'd go this far though..

man cant news people get it right.. its not a tank , but an APC

Snapped while waiting on hold to talk to someone at Telstra who spoke english?...

LOL call of duty. I hope they include this in a minigame in call of duty 4.

@chuloallen: YOU try fitting "armored personnel carrier" into a headline.

I am so jealous. Someone needs to ask him if it was worth it. I bet it was.

@Calhoun: "APC"

hmm....i'll be right back.

"So kid... was it worth it?"....... "Totally"

Can't hear him now...

I want video of this, like, NOW.

I'd also like to try it. Seems like crashing through a building would be a killer way to spend a day.

How do you arrest someone in a tank? If GTA taught me anything it's that the tank was the ultimate arrest-resister.

I guess he hit their weak points for massive damage.

If WE would do this, we might get better service from our lousy carriers.. you taking notice AT&T? Sprint? T-Mobile? Verizon? Alltel?

If this stuff happened in the US more often, may be cell carriers would get the message, or at least legislation would come around to neuter their "we own you" contracts they make us sign to use their service.

Actually, I know for a fact that in England, people can privately own tanks and APCs and operate them in public. As long as they had the guns disabled, and fitted the tracks with rubber pads so as not to damage pavements, you can own and drive them on any public road.

I don't know what the rule is in America.

I'm almost 95% positive that you can own your own tank here in the US. I remember my high school history teacher owning his own tank. Also, no law comes to mind that restricts citizens from owning armored vehicles.

hahaha know what i just remembered! an incident DID happen in america just like this, only about a year ago. well it wasnt that similar...but this still reminded me of it. a guy took some industrial vechicle (like a bulldozer) and covered it with armor, put a few video cameras on the outside of it so that he wouldnt need to be sticking his head out, and put a gun on it. he basically just rode around, nocked down the building that he used to work at (he had just been fired) and took a few shots. the police took a fe shots at the thing, but it was totally pointless! he had covered it with like...sheets of iron that were like 3 inches thick. eventually the bulldozer's engine blew because of all the weight on it and the guy took his own life. kinda went to prove that if ur ever gonna go on a killing spree, do it with a tank. the police do have powerful guns, but even those have their limits. and if those dont work, well, ur pretty much set then (unless of course your little thing spans the distance of a few days by which time they'll get their hands on some explosives)

You can own your own tank in the US, with two restrictions.

1) You cannot drive on public roads
2) all guns on board must be rendered inoperable in accordance with federal standards.

However in the UK you can not only own the tank but drive it on the roads too! as long as it meets certain ground pressure requirements and is equipped with roadable rubber treads. Of course it also needs to fit in one lane of traffic, have appropriate signals etc. etc. The Guns still have to be deactivated though. Case in point, there is an englishman who drives his own personal M109 Paladin around London.

I don't understand why people are advocating tanks to destroy cell towers in the US... how would this fix the service?

Cell phone companies aren't going to fix something that clearly isn't broken, in a business sense at least.

How many of you have cell phones? Are you going to stop using them any time soon? No.

If you don't want crappy service then stop paying for it! That's how capitalism works. If people will pay for a service, someone will supply it. If no one will pay, then the price will fall, the service will disappear, or a better service will come about...

I just don't understand people sometimes, it's like you all want communism.

wow.... ALMOST makes me wanna move to england... almost....

I think it depends on which city in the States you live in. Because here in Denver, it's legal to drive any tracked vehicles on public streets (as long as they're rated for the weight). There's even a dealership in town that sells decommissioned army surplus armored vehicles, and they always have a few deuce-and-a-halfs.

It has to do with old shipping and trainyard laws, but it came in handy last December when we got hit with, what, ten feet of snow in a week? The only vehicles that were mobile for the first week were ruggedized trekking SUVs and half-tracks.

Aside from the trash trucks and every single earth-mover that had a person to turn its key, of course. Never before have so many people been happy to hear the sound of garbage trucks in the dark of night.

That's not tank destruction. This is tank destruction: [www.youtube.com]

The tank you want is the Leclerc. Auto machine guns, auto aiming turret, side mounted 80mm grenade launchers, and it packs 22 anti-tank shells that are loaded automatically, and can fire 12 per minute. Just TRY and stop that bitch.

[i]You can own your own tank in the US, with two restrictions.[/i]

Crap :f well what i wanted to say its... That frightens me

@Adam: Adan you are right, of course -- but there is still fantasy fun to be had in contemplating that some frustration or other can be solved by a little rampant destruction. Die Hard movies anyone?

Well I dont think owning a tank and going out and destroying cell towers would work too well in the US. Most cell towers are now located on buildings at least in the are where I live at. What you would need is a hand held RPG (Rocket Propelled Granade) and I dont think Roscoe is selling them at the local used car lot.

"How do you arrest someone in a tank? If GTA taught me anything it's that the tank was the ultimate arrest-resister."

I believe that the M1A1 gets about 1MPG. Of course, that's a gas turbine engine with an output of 1500 bhp. Even in a smaller APC, fuel would be the critical weakness for longevity of operations. Unless the towers were really close, I'm sure that the guy just ran out of fuel. Those things also get really hot inside, so I'll bet that he popped the hatch and came on out rather than sit inside and cook.

This did happen in the US before. I have watched an episode of the wildest police chases ever and a man stole a tank and went on a SLOW speed chase on the freeway with authorities. After the man got stuck on a guard rail the cops ended up climbing the tank, opening the hatch and popping the guy.

What I want to know is how in the world do you steal a tank. Are tank owners so cocky that they think know one would dare steal there tank so they just leave the keys to a TANK in the ignition or in the visor. Please tank owners be a little more responsible, my reception is bad enough without angry customers ramming cell phone towers.

@mikestan86:

Yeah I seem to recall that episode.

Having spent a good portion of my youth driving a Caterpillar D6 under the hot summer sun, I can only imagine how much fun this guy must have had. I have always wanted to drive a tank!

Seems to me that a tank would probably not have a key to start it. I mean it might just be me but seeing as how tanks tend to be made exclusively for military organizations it wouldn't really require the small security afforded by a keyed ignition. Additionally... could you imagine losing a battle because your tank commanders lost their keys?

@mikestan86:
If I remeber correctly, he stole the tank from a military base.

And, tanks don't have keys.

I should get in a tank and call up AT&T on my T-Mo RAZR while holding my iPhone loading up skateboarding dog on EDGE and tell them, "I'm in a tank 300ft away from one of your towers. If skateboarding dog doesn't load by the time I reach the tower, you guys need faster EDGE... and a new tower..."

Like others have said, this is not a good plan to make your service better. That metal pole alone is around $50k, and the average cost in man hours and equipment to build a cell tower is around $10mm.

What you could do is find other people in your neighborhood who have the same provider and destroy their houses and run over them. that way, less people in your area would be using your tower, which would free up more resources for you.

Simpsons comes to mind when reading this post.

CW: Shoot the tires out lou
Lou: err its a tank cheif
CW: you know what im getting real tired of your excuses

Thanks for the link RCARYDON - my favorite line was "the officers leave the safety of their patrol cars..." Given what the tank did to every other car in the video, I'm not sure it mattered if they stayed or left their vehicles...

As for anyone with a tank or APC or whatever, imagine the scene at the insurance company.

"Let's see, you want fire and theft on that... and maybe collision coverage?"

"Okay... umm. what year is it? I can't seem to find your vehicle on my list... is it a 2 door or a 4 door...?"

"and, will you be using it for off-road use at all?"

Paul

@GFX-187: well done.

The Second amendment says "…to keep and bear arms." It doesn't say "only firelocks". Technically, if you can afford one (and there are plenty of people ready to sell it to you), you should be able to own a fully-armed tank. Or a machine gun. Or a grenade-launcher.

I'd love to see a case get to the Supreme Court-- especially this Supreme Court.

The American version happened right here in good 'ol San Diego about 10 years ago. Guy went off his meds and stole a real tank from the local National Guard armory. Smashed the crap out of stuff for about 45 minutes until he got the treads hung up on a freeway center divider. Before he could get over the center divide and take on the oncoming freeway traffic, the fine men and women of SDPD climbed aboard GTA stlye and popped a cap in his ass, ending the chase and the nuts life in nice one clean sweep.

The youtube video above linked by rcarydon is the chase.

Can you teabag with it, like in the game?

HE PWNS
i guess some1 has been playing grand theft auto a littl etoo much.

IIRC, the tank guy in SD only got stuck on center divider because he was trying to take down the overpass? I wonder if they'd still shoot to kill after these non-lethal precedents have been set? rubber bullets would have been more fun to shoot into the tank cause they'd bounce around like crazy.

A tank firig depleted uranium shells - yeah THAT'S what I want (notice to Department of Homeland Security and A.T.F. - I am TOTALLY kidding here. I am a loyal American! My parents told me so!)

@Fierock: You are correct. The police were also concerned about the potential loss of life should he have gotten the tank unstuck and headed into oncoming freeway traffic. The fact that he did not kill anyone up to that point was a sheer miracle. He crushed a number of cars and a motorhome, any of which could have had someone in them.

They considered tear gas, but assumed anyone with a tank might be prepared with gas masks, etc. The officer who scrambled up on the tank while it was still rocking back and forth trying to get free of the center divide is a hero in my book. My wife was on her way home from work in those oncoming lanes he was trying to head onto. I have no problem with the force used to stop him. If they had to wait for a taser or other non-lethal equipment to arrive, the police could have lost their opportunity to definitively stop a maniac before potential loss of life occured.

@EBone: I also don't have any problems with the police using deadly force on someone who is hellbent on destruction and, more importantly, carnage. As a typical liberal Canadian I just usually opt for the sissy teargas method so that we have something to joke about and can all make fun of some idiot who failed in his suicide mission. But more importantly I'm glad that your wife did not have to cross vehicular paths with that particular wackjob.

If I where stinking rich I would bail his ass out :D

@Fierock: Thanks Fierock. She was none too happy about being stuck in traffic for about four hours waiting for police to clear the scene, but it was better than the alternative.