“Items on the prohibited list include armored tracked vehicles, weaponized aircraft and vehicles, .50-caliber firearms and ammo, bayonets, and camouflage.”
Sheriff Bo Machismo: “But you don’t *understand*, we neeeed that stuff! For like a zombie apocalypse, or a Canadian moose mounted shock troop invasion force!”
Seriously, years ago, one big city Sheriff complained that he needed a water cooled .30 caliber machine gun, “so if a terrorist hijacked a plane we could shoot it down.”
While what you say holds water, look at he flip side - he is also taking away equipment that could be useful if governors/sheriffs decided the feds had overstepped their bounds...
This is an issue that causes me to feel torn - hate for local cops to be so militarized, but Obama's EO on this also makes me uncomfortable about what the government is up to.