It’s the implied “only” that bothers me.
Oklahoma City police chief changes mind, OKs personal rifles
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma City Police Chief Bill Citty reconsidered his previous position, he said Monday, and will allow officers to carry their personal rifles while on duty until the department buys additional weapons.
Citty said he changed his mind after three officers were shot and killed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, this weekend.
“Right now with everything going on, I want the officers to feel better,” Citty said. “I want them to feel safer.”
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The department last week approved issuing about 85 new rifles for its supervisors, which will result in a total of nearly 300 department-issued rifles for about 500 officers patrolling the streets, according to police spokesman Capt. Paco Balderrama.
Ah, the right to feel safe. What sins have been committed in thy name. I must be disarmed so that others may feel safe, I must buy cops guns (that they’d cheerfully bust me for carrying) so that they may feel safe…
Heh – I wrote a book containing a moment like this. Threatened as a class, some cops gunned up bigtime and some got much more polite or just quit. The ratio between the two groups was a factor in how much blood got spilled in the revolution, which by that point was pretty much inevitable anyway.
I do question, though – if these cops already have rifles, why are the good citizens of Oklahoma City being forced to buy them more? An AR’s pretty much an AR, right?
…or is that blasphemy?
Depends on where they are, I think. One of the deputies here, the firearms instructor for the sheriff’s department, has enough guns to outfit all the other deputies ten times over. Not going to be an issue, however, because all of the 7 other deputies also have more guns than they have time to shoot…. And they do carry their own guns, for the most part. But I don’t think there are too many AR types among them. They’d be good against the rustlers, probably, but too light if they’re going up against bison or moose… bear or even mountain lions. Not too many terrorists in NE Wyoming. At least not yet.
Stay tuned. They seem to be doing a heck of a job beating down the terrorists.
“Heck of a job,” of course, being govspeak for “complete failure.”
I hope that Police Chief is ensuring that his troops are qualified for whatever it is that they are carrying. It only takes one unfortunate accident, wherein a cop shoots a citizen, to perpetuate this crap.
Since Joel mentioned his book, I’ll mention that if any of you haven’t read Walt’s Gulch and Songs of Bad Men and Good, you really should. They’re both quite good and available on his sidebar. With interesting times ahead, it’s not too soon to stock up on your winter reading material. 🙂
The rifles the people of Oklahoma City are buying might have the fun switch, so they would be better than other AR’s
More fun, maybe. More expensive, certainly. Better? Doubt it. I’ve seen police full-auto training, and it just turns money into noise faster.
Thank goodness that cops and felons never caught on to the fact that firepower is not how many rounds you can get down range but how many rounds you can get on target. Let them have their spray and pray guns and hope they never catch on to how well rifles like the 7.62X51 scout work.
Mama Liberty, the drug runners found NE Wyoming – there was a time when every trailer home in some isolated spot was either a meth manufacturing facility or a rest stop on the drug runner’s delivery route. If the terrorists haven’t found you yet my bet is that they will. Soon.
I’m afraid you’ve been hearing unsubstantiated rumors about that. There are parts of Wyoming – mostly the south and southwest areas, actually – with those problems, caused by gov. prohibition, of course, but it is not common here. There would be no such thing as “meth” anywhere if it were not for the insane prohibitions.
I know the sheriff and his deputies personally, and we talk. A few folks come in with drugs from time to time, but they tend to pass them among themselves and seldom cause problems. They also tend to leave in the winter. 🙂 When they do cause real problems, our sheriff is mostly interested in keeping the peace, not enforcing the prohibition.