Criminals use handguns for 99+% of all firearms-related crimes. And they are even worse shots than the police.
It is not that the police are very good shots either. In real gunfights, police hit their target about 1 shot in 5 attempts.
That is a lot of stray rounds in a gunfight. Bystanders had better get under cover or get out of the area quickly. It's a good thing most gunfights do not last very long.
This has not changed much for over 50 years.
One thing that has changed is that police casualties from criminal attacks are sharply down over the last 20 years. Things were going quite well until recently when the politicians messed up Ferguson and Baltimore and Chicago and New York, and Florida.
But police do like their new toys.
This should end well.
IF it has come to it that police need these type of weapons because of muslim terrorists, then maybe that should tell the fed gov something.
You are exactly correct.
There may be good reasons to replace a shotgun with an AR-15 type rifle. The rifle is more precise, has longer range, and less likely to hit an unintended target.
But the idea that criminals are using AK 47 rifles in any significant amount is rubbish.
Change would be an AKM.
Have you ever been involved in a real-life firefight? Bullets coming at you fast & furious? You’d only hit 1 out of 5 shots too........it simply ain’t the firing range where you can take your time getting your sight picture.....
Most cops probably practice far more than you......or me - and I have my own range on my country acreage in front of my house.....