Excerpt: On this day in 1981, President Ronald Reagan was shot in the chest at the side entrance of the Washington Hilton on Connecticut Avenue by John Hinckley Jr. Reagan was walking to his limousine after a speech to AFL-CIO leaders when Hinckley, 25, who was standing among a group of reporters, fired six shots, hitting Reagan and three others.
Is that a fuckin uzi?
Yes, here are some other angles that show it better.
It’s got a stock so its a little less spray-and-pray, but not by much. It wouldn’t be my first choice in a crowded area, is what I am saying.
I kind of feel like it was chosen for the cool factor. Because there’s no way in the hell that a professional would look at all of the weapons they had on offer and choose that one.
Keeping in mind that the Uzi was concealed in a briefcase, making overall length a limiting factor, the choice is not strange for the early 1980s.
The Uzi has a ten inch barrel despite its very compact size, and a controllable 600RPM. And there’s no rule in real life that says it has to be fired on full auto.
The natural competition that comes to mind would be an MP5K. However it has no stock, a 4.5 inch barrel, and a higher full auto rate of fire. That variant had also only been introduced a few years before.
The USSS did eventually adopt MP5A3s/MP5A5s and P90s but those are carried more openly with less emphasis on concealment, at least within the restraint of a briefcase carry like in the Reagan era.
Other than the Uzi, many weapons would seemingly be too large for the desired concealment (carbines), too foreign (Skorpion machine pistols for example), or straight up inferior (MAC-10s). Of what’s left, the Uzi is not going to be outlandish in comparison.
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Yarp, secret service used to get Uzis
What do they have now?
While it would be difficult to know exactly everything they have, they seem to have kept up with the times. The Uzis have been reportedly phased out.
In recent use, the secret service definitely has Knight’s Armament Company 5.56x45mm SR-16E3 CQB rifles.
MP5A3s (possibly MP5A5s, but MP5A3s seem more overall popular with law enforcement, and full auto seems more like what USSS would choose.). I’ve never seen MP5Ks in USSS hands, but I wouldn’t be surprised to learn about them.
P90s.
Remington 870 PGO shotguns. Probably intended for breaching, but possibly for less-than-lethal rounds. The USSS agent in the photo is carrying 5.56mm magazines, making the shotgun clearly not the primary long weapon.
While I’ve never seen an MP7 in USSS hands, a solicitation request from 2016 seems like it would be a good fit for them.
Same uzis.
Looks more like a Mac-11.
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That’d be a Mac-11, I believe. Not an Uzi.
It is a full sized, folding stock Uzi. I have another comment in the thread showing other angles.