Palestinian Home-Made SMG “Carlo”

You may recall the “Carl Gustav” sub-machine gun found near Tul-Karm in November, and how Aruz 7 thought it was a recoilless rifle because they researched it on Wikipedia.

Turns out, this specific gun type is much more prevalent than I imagined.

Besides my updates to the original post, I also shared the story on the Fresh.co.il DefSec forum, (known favorably in this neighborhood as the ones pulling stings on the DouchebloggerTM). Together, we have located more of the same model, and a bit of background information about it.

This model, which has unique and easily identifiable features, was seen around since mid-2012, and is probably made inside the Palestinian Authority. On at least two occasions, IDF and Israel police have caught a smuggling attempt through Te’enim Checkpoint, south of Tul-Karm, into Israel. The original story posted was such an event, as well as one several weeks ago, when three such guns were caught in the same place.

The same make was used by Muahamad Mubarak in his failed terrorist attack just one day before.

Interestingly enough, Mubarak himself took this photo of a Fatah gunman in a rally in Ramallah to mark 26 years since the 1st Intifada. See the gun he’s holding? Yup, it’s the same make.

This gun is a crude, 9mm, open-bolt, full auto only sub-machine gun, that in principal design, is similar to the Carl Gustav M/45 (or the Egyptian licensed Port Said), as well as the Sten gun, and other such 1940’s design. This model, as well as other, less crafted types, were and are constantly being used in Israel and the Palestinian Authority, mostly for crime related attacks, clan wars, and blood feuds. Yet as we have seen, it doesn’t take much to use this weapon in a terrorist attack, despite it’s relative ineffectiveness – super short barrel, barn-shed build quality, as well as amateurish use, make it a rather lousy weapon in general.

But unlike all the different makes, this one specific model is seen over and over again. It means this gun is made in one single workshop, probably by the same gunsmith. And while 2 such shops in Kalkilya and Shchem were busted in 2011, it’s not implausible that it is still being made in a different one altogether

So I decided to map it.

I counted at least 28 cases where this gun was caught or spotted, with a (current) total of 32 guns.

While the spatial distribution is rather straight forward – it’s only found in Arab villages and towns – it’s interesting to see the development over time.

There seems to be increased police intel work to track these weapons in the last few months of 2013 and the beginning of 2014 (it should be pointed out, the busts are not aimed solely against this make, but all other makes as well).

Besides Police and IDF raids, some of these pop up accidentally, though, as you can see, not nearly as often.

I’ll keep updating the database, so check back ever once in a while.

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