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Australian police increasingly issued patrol rifles
Guns.com ^ | 03/29/18 | Chris Eger

Posted on 03/29/2018 9:13:07 AM PDT by Simon Green

(New South Wales Public Order and Riot Squad officers with Colt M4 carbines)

Citing threats posed by gun-armed criminals and potential terrorists, law enforcement in Australia are getting more rifles.

In Victoria, a spokesman for Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton confirmed state police are considering expanding the use of semi-auto rifles for officers, The Age reported. While personnel assigned to Victoria’s Special Operations Group and Critical Incident Response Team already have access to such firepower, patrol officers will likely have access to rifles when needed.

“To enhance our abilities to respond to a major security incident or terrorism attack, we are currently scoping the potential use of a limited allocation of long-arm firearms to better support frontline police,” said an Ashton spokesman.

Victoria isn’t the only state looking to up-arm. In New South Wales, Police Commissioner Mick Fuller confirmed last December that 47 officers were trained on Colt M4 carbines while another 50 were set to be trained. In Queensland, senior officers for years have had Remington R4 Patrolman rifles, designated as the standard service rifle, available for use in high-threat situations as needed.

Contrary to assertions that Australia has not seen a significant shooting event since 1996 when the country instituted a wholesale ban on several types of firearms, in the so-called Brighton Siege last year four people were shot, one fatally, by a terrorist with an illegally acquired shotgun.

In 2016, five people were killed in a mass shooting in Port Lincoln, while police engaging a knife-armed man in Westfield Hornsby left three bystanders injured. Though banned, an AK-47 type rifle was reportedly used in the Ingleburn workplace shooting that left one dead and two more injured the same year. In NSW in 2015, police arrested a man who used a firearm in a triple murder in the rural Hermidale community.

“Despite Australia’s strict gun control regime, criminals are now better armed than at any time since then-Prime Minister John Howard introduced a nationwide firearm buyback scheme in response to the 1996 Port Arthur massacre,” said The Age last year in a special report on the climbing rate of gun crimes in the city of Melbourne, where shootings have become “almost a weekly occurrence.”


TOPICS: Australia/New Zealand; Constitution/Conservatism; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: australia; banglist; police

1 posted on 03/29/2018 9:13:07 AM PDT by Simon Green
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To: Simon Green

Ah, so if the police use it then it’s called a “Patrol Rifle” but if you have it it’s called an “Assault Rifle”.

Yes, I’m sure that makes the gun-grabbers feel better.


2 posted on 03/29/2018 9:15:00 AM PDT by MeganC (There is nothing feminine about feminism.)
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To: Simon Green

But wait! There is no gun violence in Australia because the law-abiding turned all of theirs in by government order. How did bad guys get guns?


3 posted on 03/29/2018 9:20:27 AM PDT by 43north (Its hard to stop a man when he knows what's right and he keeps on coming.)
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To: MeganC

Don’t laugh! After the 1968 gun control law was passed it was illegal to import 5 shot bolt action army surplus rifles into the USA.

It was still LEGAL to import 5 shot bolt action rifles, off the same assembly line IF they had been issued to the police.


4 posted on 03/29/2018 9:20:51 AM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar
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To: Simon Green

How’s all that gun ban and gun confiscation stuff workin’ out?


5 posted on 03/29/2018 9:24:37 AM PDT by NorthMountain (... the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: Simon Green

Looks like they get standard capacity magazines too. They really should be limited to 5 rounds just to keep it civil.


6 posted on 03/29/2018 9:38:22 AM PDT by jospehm20
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To: Simon Green

Blow me kangaroo away, Sport.


7 posted on 03/29/2018 9:52:13 AM PDT by VietVet876
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To: 43north

We have gun free schools.

They have a gun free continent.

Same solution for both — arm the citizens.


8 posted on 03/29/2018 9:55:51 AM PDT by Scrambler Bob (You know that I am full of /S)
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To: Simon Green

Do they get one bullet per patrolman?


9 posted on 03/29/2018 10:24:27 AM PDT by matthew fuller (Thank God for Donald J. Trump- El Presidente Por La Vida !!)
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To: matthew fuller
Do they get one bullet per patrolman?

Well, that would explain this:

Brisbane, Australia Cops Put Out an APB for Four Lost Training Rounds

http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2017/09/robert-farago/brisbane-australia-cops-put-apb-four-lost-training-rounds/

This is not April 1 and this not a joke. I repeat: you are not reading The Onion and this is not a joke. “Police are trying to find four rounds of police training ammunition which went missing while being taken from police headquarters to firearms training at Belmont in Brisbane’s south,” couriermail.com.au reports. Again: this is an actual news story. Here’s the rest . . .

The ammunition went missing at Coorparoo on September 20 while police were travelling to Belmont to conduct firearms training about 7am.

“The training ammunition is described as being approximately 3cm in length and a bronze and copper colour (see pictured),” a police statement said.

“The training ammunition is to be treated as a dangerous item if found and members of the public are urged not pick up or handle the training ammunition.

“Police are encouraging anyone who locates the training ammunition to call Policelink on 131 444.”

10 posted on 03/29/2018 10:31:51 AM PDT by Simon Green
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To: Simon Green

A half-dozen rounds roll out of my pickup every time I open the door!


11 posted on 03/29/2018 10:33:38 AM PDT by Fightin Whitey
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To: Fightin Whitey
A half-dozen rounds roll out of my pickup every time I open the door!

LOL! Good one!
12 posted on 03/29/2018 11:09:25 AM PDT by daltec
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To: Fightin Whitey

Yeah - but I bet they aren’t exploding rounds made of uranium and dipped in cyanide.


13 posted on 03/29/2018 11:13:03 AM PDT by 21twelve
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To: Simon Green

Good guys with guns? That’s not the solution to anything, just causes more violence, right Herr Hogg?


14 posted on 03/29/2018 12:01:28 PM PDT by Midwesterner53
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To: Simon Green
The training ammunition is to be treated as a dangerous item if found and members of the public are urged not pick up or handle the training ammunition.

Wow. They've fallen so low so fast.

15 posted on 03/29/2018 1:19:21 PM PDT by zeugma (Power without accountability is fertilizer for tyranny.)
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To: Simon Green
 
 
Pretty pathetic when pistol cartridges are elevated to the threat level of dynamite or nuclear weapons. I recall several years back in England there were hysterics over finding an empty (fired) cartridge case or two on some street. The area was cordoned off, forensics team and the whole nine yards brought in. A heck of a prank would be to find a whole bunch of fired cases and deftly scatter them all over London - they'd probably evacuate the city.
 
 

16 posted on 03/29/2018 1:43:51 PM PDT by lapsus calami (What's that stink? Code Pink ! ! And their buddy Murtha, too!)
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To: Simon Green
Shouldn't they be using more locally-sourced weapons?


17 posted on 03/29/2018 1:52:16 PM PDT by PLMerite ("They say that we were Cold Warriors. Yes, and a bloody good show, too." - Robert Conquest)
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To: Simon Green

Australia is undergoing a real problem with African immigrant gangs. They break into houses and assault the owners. They need to deport these criminals and STOP importing them.


18 posted on 03/29/2018 3:00:28 PM PDT by Amberdawn (If Leftists Didn't Live By Double Standards, They'd Have No Standards At All.)
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To: Fightin Whitey

It’s happened so many times, I don’t even blink if there’s a bullet there when I reach for change.


19 posted on 03/29/2018 7:26:25 PM PDT by namvolunteer (Obama says the US is subservient to the UN and the Constitution does not apply. That is treason.9we)
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To: namvolunteer
It’s happened so many times, I don’t even blink if there’s a bullet there when I reach for change.

Right. Four or five .30-30 rounds accidently clink into the church collection plate--ha!

20 posted on 03/30/2018 4:57:45 AM PDT by Fightin Whitey
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