Posted on 10/05/2009 10:37:44 AM PDT by JesmanVA
According to The Capital Times, the Madison Police Department has been trying to get assault rifles for its officers for years. The City Council has not granted funding for the rifles due to budgetary constraints.
In a disputed effort to better equip the officers, the department has proposed that each officer buy his or her own assault rifle.
(Excerpt) Read more at eeekonomy.com ...
Many of the LEO’s work in rural areas. If you find yourself in a firefight with a bad guy(s), at distance, that’s trying to kill you with his trusty high power scoped hunting rifle, you might just want to be able to use a bit more that your 4-6” spit-wad shooter.. ya think?
In most situations, the sidearm and/or shotgun is the best choice for a variety of reasons, but if you find yourself trapped in or forced to handle a situation wherein you need a rifle, it’s not like you can call timeout and head to the nearest sporting-goods store.
I think I would pull back and call for a SWAT team with trained snipers instead of taking on a bunch a bad guys with high power rifles, alone, with my trusty assault rifle that I took to the range 3 times and have locked in the trunk.
If officers work in the country, and have to wait a while for back-up, I dont see any problem with them having an AR-15 or a mini-14. Most larger departments issue their officers an AR, a Mini or something like that.
As a newspaper reporter, I was on the fringes of a gunbattled on Jan 10 2002 where an idiot opened up on a couple of cops with a big bore deer rifle. The deputies shot it out with the idiot for four hours to save their guys. It finally ended with a trooper shot the tip of the idiots nose off with a 223 bolt action sniper rifle.
As I said, cops have to deal with some dangerous idiots these days, I have no problem with them shooting back as long as they dont try to keep me from being equally as well armed.
You can get a nice Bushmaster AR-15 at Gander Mountain for $899.00. That’s all they need, along with a bag of 20 round magazines and some ammunition, of course.
Many departments require their LEO’s to call them “patrol rifles”. Just more PR crap, because it sounds like a more friendly weapon.
The west virginia DNR bought surplus ruger mini-14s for their game wardens for about $300 a piece, along with mags. These werent the ranch rifles, but the ones with open sights. I’ve seen them, they do the job just fine.
They came surplus from the department of agriculture, believe it or not.
The LEOs I’ve known take their weapons to the range more than three times. For a lot of ‘em shooting is their hobby as well as a career skill. And their speed and accuracy is truly impressive and even downright scary.
Obviously this isn’t all cops. But its a surprising number of them.
Lots of ammo.
“as long as they dont try to keep me from being equally as well armed.”
Most cops support law abiding citizens right to be armed, as long as the guns aren’t pointed at them. ;>)
As for the Bushmater.... I can’t really speak to that choice, but I hold that if you believe that you may ever become involved in a firefight, buy the best you can get your hands on. Mine is a fully dressed Rock River with optics. The entire package cost me nearly $1800 and so far, I think it was worth every dime.
They need the assault weapons because when you are flooding the intersection next to Wal-Mart and shining flashing lights into the cars of passing motorists granny can get mighty cranky! Oh, and when you pull over people to check there tax stamps John Q Public can get really pissed!
What are you talking about? Clearly nothing you know much about.
This is my main carry sidearm
http://www.jgsales.com/popup_image.php/pID/3859/invis/0
Not this particular one, mind you, but a 9mm one like it.
My rifle project is gonna be an Olympic M-4 style lower with an LMT Upper receiver flattop with a 16 inch bbl. I havent put it together yet because I don’t yet have the money for an aimpoint to put on top of it.
I traded an M1928A1 Thompson, with a 50 round drum and 6 stick magazines, for 5 boxes of C-Rats from an ARVN RF-PF. I stowed it in the turret of my M48A3 tank along with the OEM M3A1 greaseguns that were also located there. It came in handy in a couple firefights. When it was time to rotate home, I considered smuggling it back home, but decided against the risk of stockade time. I sold the gun to a MATS CPT C-130 pilot for $150.00. He said that they only issued him a snub revolver, and he wanted more firepower. Were you that guy????
You CAN’T always do that. Some events require immediate action, to save lives, and some agencies do not have a SWAT team.
Let’s take the rifle out of the equation for a bit. Let’s say that you have been dispatched to an unknown disturbance at a farm house 20 miles out in the rural part of the county.
As you arrive and approach the door, you recognize the place and remember that a few months ago, it took 3 officers to arrest a violent suspect that outweighs you by 80 pounds. You then hear loud crashes and the screams of a woman begging for her life. You can hear children crying. Backup is what anyone would want on such a call. What should the cop do....wait and hide in the darkness for the 15 minutes it could take for backup or suck them up and stop the violence, perhaps saving lives. Cops deal with this kind of junk every day... some far more serious.
I could type up countless of examples, but I am lazy. LOL
Handcuff the crooks, not our cops.
I just noticed that you said, “taking on a bunch a bad guys with high power rifles, alone”. You are absolutely right in that kind of event.... as long as you have that choice, that IS the way to handle it.
How long have you been out?
You have excellent tastes! I have a Sig, but I would LOVE to also have one of those.
“...and head to the nearest sporting-goods store.”
Like they had to during the North Hollywood Bank Robbery back in the 90’s.
I have dreams of such firepower and wake up with a smile on my face......
Thank you for your service and I’m glad you made it back.
That’s exactly what I was thinking about when I typed that. ;>)
One of the members at the Saiga-12 forum is a LEA armorer, he and several other of the officers have Saiga 12 and Saiga .223 long arms in their inventory.
The Saiga 12 is a Kalashnikov 12 gauge while the Saiga .223 is a .223 Kalashnikov.
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