[beltfed308]

The reason police are considering the purchase is simple: to counter the firepower they sometimes face on the street - rifles with ranges of 600 to 800 meters

M-16 meet FN FAL or FN 49. Who will win? Of course no one should deprive the cops of their toys while they deny us ours.

[boofus]

But they are only good for killing people indiscriminately!!! Good thing our police officers can now spray us from the hip and kill us all with more thrust per squeeze /sarcasm

[SJSAMPLE]

.223 is a "high caliber"?

[Radioactive]

Maybe instad of spending 7 grand on M16's, they should take that money and spend it on shutting down the borders.

Take away the threat by stopping them at the border first instead of fighting them on our streets.

[doorgunner69]

>The reason police are considering the purchase is simple: to counter the firepower they sometimes face on the street - rifles with ranges of 600 to 800 meters. <

Gangbangers are now using long range snipers? Who knew?

[Dead Corpse]

&#8220;If we get a terrorist-type situation, we as first line responders&#8230;

Curious. That is the same reasoning some of the Founders used when referring to the citizen militia and protecting our Right to do so with the Second Amendment.

[CSM]

Can they name one actual instance where they would need to shoot at someone 800 meters away from them?

[Ford4000]

I hope the first innocent victim of a stray bullet from one sues their pants off.

If they need extra range occasionally, I could see a bolt-action but this will just encourage carelessness.

[Charles Martel]

The Columbus Police Department has a proposal pending to acquire semi-automatic rifles similar to the M16 through a federal government program.

Hmm... Civilian Marksmanship Program, perhaps? I believe they have AR-15s for "club" purchase.

[WmDonovan]

"The reason police are considering the purchase is simple: to counter the firepower they sometimes face on the street - rifles with ranges of 600 to 800 meters."

Must be a spacious city to have clear fields of fire 600 to 800 meters long. Their policemen must have good eyesight to identify targets at that range. In that case a Remington 700 with a good scope would be the rifle of choice.

The references to .223 as being "high caliber" is mystifying. If I'm not mistaken it is not legal to hunt deer in some states with this varmint cartridge...out of concern that deer will be merely wounded. If it is not going to kill a 90 pound deer I don't think that I'd stake my life on it. Of course, in the military there are some mitigating factors: the preference to injure the enemy and thus tie up their troops in caring for wounded, and the possibility of multiple hits from automatic fire making up for a wimpy cartridge. In a law enforcement situation I'm not sure either of those would hold true. Only advantage would be that it might be marginally safer in that a miss would be less likely to penetrate a brick wall, etc., and strike a bystander. Still, if they want a low power semi-auto they could go with Mini-14's and save a lot of money.

[atomic_dog]

Interesting that MSM refers to these as "semi-automatic rifles" when the police are buying them but the suck weasels label them "assault rifles" when they want them banned from civilian ownership.

[niteowl77]

A lot of PD's acquired M1 Carbines and had them sitting around for years; many of these departments eventually replaced them with Mini-14's, which didn't seem to get any more use than the old surplus carbines. Today, the Mini is on the outs and the M16/AR platform is the new tool of choice... unfortunately, it will also prove to be the wrong tool for a lot of jobs, but that's par for the course.

[hlmencken3]

Don't a lot of local police, sheriffs, etc., around the country have REAL M16s with full-auto capabilities?

[Loyal Buckeye]

Michael Coleman,Democrat, mayor of Columbus, candidate for governor, and dipstick interviewed by Glen Beck, will certainly approve the purchase of the new guns in order to demonstrate he is tough on crime. He will, however, not approve the purchase of bullets for the new guns to demonstrate to his followers that he is for gun control.

[School of Rational Thought]

semi-automatic rifles for cops, "assault rifles" for citizens

[Mulder]

This is just another step in the militarization of our police.

If an officer wants to keep an AR-15, FAL, etc., in his trunk, that is his Right as an American. Just like it is for Joe Q. Citizen.

If he wants Class 3 hardware (M-16 and the like), let him jump through the hoops like the rest of us peasants would have to do.

But there is no way taxpayers should be paying for these rifles, nor should they be issued these rifles per department policies. This is also a safety issue as most cops are notoriously poor shots.

Giving them automatic rifles will do little except inflate the egos of cops.

[HolgerDansk]

Last month, cops in Colorado Springs attempted to use their "powerful new assault rifles" to put down a cattle rebellion, with the expected result -- 180 rounds fired, stray bullets everywhere, and five cattle that suffered needlessly.

You can read about it Here.