Hollywood incident: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Hollywood_shootout
The Wiki page does not note that officers ran into a local gun shop to obtain AR-15 type rifles and other high powered arms to try to keep the bad guys bottled up.
http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/index.php/t-237519.html
Miami incident: http://www.thegunzone.com/11april86.html
Next time the terrorists will probably wear Kevlar like the Hollywood bank robbers. I’m surprised they weren’t wearing it for this mission.
Even for the police the anti-gun liberals are out to get them. There's no reason officers should have a long gun in their vehicle. They would if I was mayor or Governor.
As a side note, I’m pretty sure the gun shop owner had a hell of a time getting his firearms back from the L.A. Police. That’s certainly quite the incentive for a civic-minded action by the gun shop owner.