Posted on 03/24/2008 7:31:13 AM PDT by holymoly
Four years after the federal ban on assault weapons was allowed to expire, police are engaged in an arms race with criminals. More and more police departments now arm patrol officers with military-style weaponry that can match criminals' firepower and even penetrate body armor.
Sadly, the lawmen had warned Congress and President Bush about this very problem in 2004 as they tried in vain to be heard over the pro-gun drumbeat of the National Rifle Association.
Last year saw the largest number of police officers killed on duty in five years, with 69 shot to death. Six times in 2007, two or more officers were killed in a single incident.
''Our departments are moving to these weapons out of necessity across the country,'' The Associated Press was told by Chief Scott Knight, an official of the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Knight's own small department in Chaska, Minn., has ordered 10 assault rifles with 30-round ammunition clips.
Back in 2004, the then-head of Knight's organization warned, ''Weapons of this nature serve no legitimate sporting or hunting purposes and have no place in our community. Unless Congress acts, the firearms of choice for terrorists, drug dealers, gang members and thugs will be back on our streets where once again our officers will be outgunned by criminals.'' That has come to pass.
Miami Police Chief John Timoney calls the new arms race with criminals ''a national problem.'' He has armed his officers with AR-15 assault rifles in response.
Los Angeles police learned the danger of being outgunned by criminals wearing body armor in 1997, when 11 officers were injured, plus two civilians, in a gun battle with two bank robbers. That, no doubt, was on the mind of Chief William Bratton when arguing in 2004 to keep the federal assault weapon ban in place, he demanded to know, ''By what right does Congress and the President of the United States put at risk the lives of the young men and women who put on those uniforms and those badges?''
Chief Bratton's question remains just as urgent today. Military style weapons have no legitimate place in civilian hands on America's streets.
Four years ago, as the ban expired, we posed this question: ''Who in Congress will have the guts now to introduce a new and even tighter ban on such killing machines?'' The question remains relevant.
B.F.D. What class of body armor?
Ballistic Resistance of Personal Body Armor NIJ-Standard 0101.04 (PDF)
Body Armor Performance standards
(Wikipedia; data from Underwriters Laboratories [UL Standard 752] and the United States National Institute of Justice [NIJ Standard 0101.04])
The weapon of choice among criminals is the handgun, because you can't conceal an AR-15 in your jeans. Gosh, criminals must not be involved in hunting or sports. If any gang banger had wanted a rifle for some reason during the AW ban, they were always available to steal or buy with no flash hider. This is such a load of political crap.
So now, suddenly police departments have to militarize themselves due to the expiration of the AW ban? It sounds like hollow justification for the JBT to me.
My city’s PD got 25 Bushmaster 7.62 M-14’s with laser sights last fall. Held one. Yeah, it was cool.
OR...congresscritters and the ACLU DEMAND we be unarmed when attacked by some nut/criminal??
terrorists, drug dealers, gang members and thugs are using bayonet fitted "assault weapons" these days?
Notice how the lead implies that there's some sort of connection, while nothing in the rest of the article supports that thesis whatsoever. As far as this article goes, it would be just as valid to say, "Four years after the Indonesian tsunami, police are engaged in an arms race with criminals."
What an idiot A 30-30 from a lever action can penetrate body armor. Just about ANY bottle-neck cartridge can penetrate body armor.
Putting rifles in the hands of good qualified officers is a smart thing. It gives them a depth of confrontation where they can engage at a distance, rather than closer, which is needed for the shotgun.
If HONEST citizens were packing heat, they could probably put these perps down during one of their EARLY crimes (that liquor store or 7-11 holdup) and BEFORE they graduate to full assaults on cops. Has anyone else noticed that only the really stupid criminals hit pawn shops during business hours? Could that be because most proprietors of same are ARMED??
Some of those armed citizens might even be in position to take a clean head shot while these guys were trying to gun down the cops.
Do the politicians and their APPOINTED police chiefs REALLY think bad guys will turn in their guns? Duuuhhhhhh...!
WHY THEY WANT OUR GUNS!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j73SsNFgBO4
Didn’t the DC Sniper and the West Hollywood Bank Robbery occur during the so called Assault Weapons Ban?
Contrare, political Pimp-in Chief Bratton, and The Morning Journal rag.
Military style weapons are exactly what will be needed to water the Tree of Liberty.
ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒE
Thanks to CGTRWK. This story is journalistic malpractice at it's worst! Writer & editor should be fired.
Given the article doesn't have statistics to back it my bet is that most of them were not killed by "assault rifles".
Gee, I wonder why they don't mention how many of these 69 were killed by the so-called assault weapons they want banned?
Haha I swear I didn’t read your post first
Bratton is somewhat Constitutionally challenged.
From a related thread here: "In 2007, according to preliminary numbers compiled by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, 69 officers were shot to death, up from 52 in 2006 and the most in five years."
That "the most in five years" brings us back to 2002 when the assault weapons ban was in effect and had been in effect for some years.
There's zero correlation between the expiration of the AWB and LEO's getting shot.
HOWEVER, take a look at the rise in the number of gang-banging ILLEGALS invading the USA and LEO's getting shot and THEN you'll have something Bunky. Those maggots have no respect for law and order or the value of human life. They'll cap a cop in a heart beat so they don't get deported.
The so-called assault weapons ban didn’t ban so-called assault weapons. I purchased my Colt AR-15 during the assault weapons ban. The only difference between mine and one you could get today is that mine doesn’t have a bayonet lug.
Deputy Beaten By Angry Mob After Responding To Noise Complaint
http://www.wftv.com/news/15688136/detail.html
From what I see down the road in Philadelphia, to say nothing of certain towns in South Florida, its no so much a case of the illegals committing crimes (although this is a factor), but of the “second baby boom” (aka the “crack baby boom”) who were born in the mid-late 80s/early 90s hitting the streets, to say nothing of the large number of folks who were locked up during the 1990s being paroled.
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