Post by Tim Collins on Oct 27, 2009 15:14:03 GMT -7
As the Boy Scouts say - "Be Prepared"
elpasoinc.com/readArticle.aspx?issueid=256&xrec=4569
Cops to buy 1,145 assault rifles
EPPD says criminals, cartels have more firepower
By Timothy Roberts
City and police officials in El Paso have been adamant that there’s been little spillover of violence from the drug war in Juárez. But the police department is taking no chances. It’s buying more than a thousand assault rifles to be issued to patrol officers.
Once all 1,145 guns arrive and officers are trained in their use, every police officer in the department will be equipped with the civilian version of the M-4 military rifle.
“This will level the playing field,” says El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen. “It’s the current best-practice weapon, especially dealing with the problems we are facing in Juárez.”
The cost, expected to be about $800,000, will be covered by a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice. The funds come from the economic stimulus package.
In some communities where police have contemplated the purchase of assault rifles, there’s been a public debate. There has been no such debate in El Paso. The issue hasn’t come before City Council, although it will – when city representatives are asked to ratify the winning bid selected by the police department. Bids are due Nov. 11.
Outgunned
The idea to equip regular patrol officers with assault rifles began to gain credence in the late 1990s, after a famous shootout between bank robbers and Los Angeles Police Department officers in North Hollywood.
The LAPD was badly outgunned in the fight and had to borrow more powerful weapons from local gun stores. Nine officers were wounded, as were several bystanders.
The two bank robbers were killed in the gunfight, which was carried live on local TV. Some video of the shootout, now available on YouTube, is used by police departments for training.
Criminals everywhere are acquiring greater firepower. Police officers armed with sidearms and shotguns are increasingly confronted with assault rifles, and as in the Hollywood bank robbery, automatic weapons.
SWAT teams have high-powered weapons, but they’re not first on the scene of most crimes. LAPD wanted patrol officers, the first responders, to have a longer range and more accurate shot to protect themselves and innocent bystanders.
“We want (the rifles) when the suspect is in a position of advantage and beyond the range of what we normally carry,” said Sgt. Steven Embrich of the LAPD’s Firearms and Tactics training division. “The main advantage is that they give enhanced accuracy and extend the effective range.”
About one in three LAPD patrol officers carries an assault rifle. They use AR-15s, a slightly longer version of the M-4. Both guns shoot the standard .223 Remington round. The AR-15 is the civilian version of the Vietnam-era M-16.
There are 10,000 police officers in Los Angles. The goal is to eventually equip all of them with the rifles, but the challenge is getting everyone trained to use them, Embrich says. The initial training period is 40 hours, followed by eight more hours of training three times a year.
In Dallas, the police department has distributed 600 rifles among its 3,800 officers, says Sgt. Paul Stanford, the range master at the department’s pistol range. Another 50 officers have bought their own AR-15s and completed the required 40-hour training.
The precipitating event in Dallas was a bank robbery three years ago in which the suspect fired an assault rifle at police who were pursuing him. Two years ago, a Dallas police officer was killed when he tried to stop a suspect. The suspect turned out to be a drug runner with the Zeta cartel in Mexico. The weapon was an AR-15 equipped with a pistol grip, Stanford says.
Across the border
Throughout the drug war in Juárez – a war that’s claimed nearly 2,000 lives so far this year – El Paso officials have said there’s been little immediate impact here, except for a murder by drug cartel hit men and a kidnapping in Horizon City.
But clearly the violence just across the border is driving the police department’s decision to buy military-style weapons.
In the city’s solicitation for bids posted Tuesday, police officials say the weapons are needed in part because of the threat across the border.
“Events on either side of the (U.S.-Mexican ) border will have an impact on both sides,” the bid request bids says. “The continued and escalating drug war has produced spillover of illegal activities … from Juárez into the City of El Paso. Prevention, protection and response in the City of El Paso are the responsibility of the El Paso Police Department.”
“What is going on in Mexico is certainly part of our concern,” Allen says. “I just want to be prepared for it.”
But a combat veteran involved in crime might also pose a threat. “You want to have a plan to deal with any contingency known or unknown,” he says.
The M-4 rifle gives an officer a more stable sighting mechanism, says Assistant El Paso Police Chief Peter Pacillas.
“It is easier for someone (with an M-4) to take an accurate shot,” he says. “It puts the officer in the position of advantage over a suspect with an AK-47 or other high-powered weapon.”
Allen says he wants the weapons to help keep the peace.
“It is better to be prepared than not be prepared,” says Allen. “George Washington said, ‘To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.’ ”
For gun nuts: M-4 tech data
The M-4, shooting the standard .223 Remington cartridge specified in the city’s bid, shoots a tiny bullet at velocities that can exceed 3,000-feet-per-second.
According to the Army field manual, the military standard cartridge in that caliber is capable of traveling about 1.75 miles when shot from a rifle with a 16-inch barrel. The Army says the cartridge is capable of hitting a target at about half a mile.
The city has specified 14-inch carbine barrels, which will diminish the bullet speed and accuracy somewhat.
Still, it is a powerful weapon. The standard .223 round used by the military is capable of penetrating approximately 15 to 20 inches of soft tissue and three millimeters of steel. The bullet can fragment when it hits bone, causing even more tissue damage and (one hopes) neutralizing a bad guy.
To be considered a true assault rifle, the weapon must be capable of selective fire (semi-automatic vs. fully automatic).
Semi automatic means one round is fired each time the trigger is pulled. The rifles El Paso PD wants will not have full auto capability.
However, the term assault rifle now is popularly used to describe many military-style weapons like the M-4, which falls under the definition given in the 1994 federal ban on assault rifles.
elpasoinc.com/readArticle.aspx?issueid=256&xrec=4569
Cops to buy 1,145 assault rifles
EPPD says criminals, cartels have more firepower
By Timothy Roberts
City and police officials in El Paso have been adamant that there’s been little spillover of violence from the drug war in Juárez. But the police department is taking no chances. It’s buying more than a thousand assault rifles to be issued to patrol officers.
Once all 1,145 guns arrive and officers are trained in their use, every police officer in the department will be equipped with the civilian version of the M-4 military rifle.
“This will level the playing field,” says El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen. “It’s the current best-practice weapon, especially dealing with the problems we are facing in Juárez.”
The cost, expected to be about $800,000, will be covered by a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice. The funds come from the economic stimulus package.
In some communities where police have contemplated the purchase of assault rifles, there’s been a public debate. There has been no such debate in El Paso. The issue hasn’t come before City Council, although it will – when city representatives are asked to ratify the winning bid selected by the police department. Bids are due Nov. 11.
Outgunned
The idea to equip regular patrol officers with assault rifles began to gain credence in the late 1990s, after a famous shootout between bank robbers and Los Angeles Police Department officers in North Hollywood.
The LAPD was badly outgunned in the fight and had to borrow more powerful weapons from local gun stores. Nine officers were wounded, as were several bystanders.
The two bank robbers were killed in the gunfight, which was carried live on local TV. Some video of the shootout, now available on YouTube, is used by police departments for training.
Criminals everywhere are acquiring greater firepower. Police officers armed with sidearms and shotguns are increasingly confronted with assault rifles, and as in the Hollywood bank robbery, automatic weapons.
SWAT teams have high-powered weapons, but they’re not first on the scene of most crimes. LAPD wanted patrol officers, the first responders, to have a longer range and more accurate shot to protect themselves and innocent bystanders.
“We want (the rifles) when the suspect is in a position of advantage and beyond the range of what we normally carry,” said Sgt. Steven Embrich of the LAPD’s Firearms and Tactics training division. “The main advantage is that they give enhanced accuracy and extend the effective range.”
About one in three LAPD patrol officers carries an assault rifle. They use AR-15s, a slightly longer version of the M-4. Both guns shoot the standard .223 Remington round. The AR-15 is the civilian version of the Vietnam-era M-16.
There are 10,000 police officers in Los Angles. The goal is to eventually equip all of them with the rifles, but the challenge is getting everyone trained to use them, Embrich says. The initial training period is 40 hours, followed by eight more hours of training three times a year.
In Dallas, the police department has distributed 600 rifles among its 3,800 officers, says Sgt. Paul Stanford, the range master at the department’s pistol range. Another 50 officers have bought their own AR-15s and completed the required 40-hour training.
The precipitating event in Dallas was a bank robbery three years ago in which the suspect fired an assault rifle at police who were pursuing him. Two years ago, a Dallas police officer was killed when he tried to stop a suspect. The suspect turned out to be a drug runner with the Zeta cartel in Mexico. The weapon was an AR-15 equipped with a pistol grip, Stanford says.
Across the border
Throughout the drug war in Juárez – a war that’s claimed nearly 2,000 lives so far this year – El Paso officials have said there’s been little immediate impact here, except for a murder by drug cartel hit men and a kidnapping in Horizon City.
But clearly the violence just across the border is driving the police department’s decision to buy military-style weapons.
In the city’s solicitation for bids posted Tuesday, police officials say the weapons are needed in part because of the threat across the border.
“Events on either side of the (U.S.-Mexican ) border will have an impact on both sides,” the bid request bids says. “The continued and escalating drug war has produced spillover of illegal activities … from Juárez into the City of El Paso. Prevention, protection and response in the City of El Paso are the responsibility of the El Paso Police Department.”
“What is going on in Mexico is certainly part of our concern,” Allen says. “I just want to be prepared for it.”
But a combat veteran involved in crime might also pose a threat. “You want to have a plan to deal with any contingency known or unknown,” he says.
The M-4 rifle gives an officer a more stable sighting mechanism, says Assistant El Paso Police Chief Peter Pacillas.
“It is easier for someone (with an M-4) to take an accurate shot,” he says. “It puts the officer in the position of advantage over a suspect with an AK-47 or other high-powered weapon.”
Allen says he wants the weapons to help keep the peace.
“It is better to be prepared than not be prepared,” says Allen. “George Washington said, ‘To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.’ ”
For gun nuts: M-4 tech data
The M-4, shooting the standard .223 Remington cartridge specified in the city’s bid, shoots a tiny bullet at velocities that can exceed 3,000-feet-per-second.
According to the Army field manual, the military standard cartridge in that caliber is capable of traveling about 1.75 miles when shot from a rifle with a 16-inch barrel. The Army says the cartridge is capable of hitting a target at about half a mile.
The city has specified 14-inch carbine barrels, which will diminish the bullet speed and accuracy somewhat.
Still, it is a powerful weapon. The standard .223 round used by the military is capable of penetrating approximately 15 to 20 inches of soft tissue and three millimeters of steel. The bullet can fragment when it hits bone, causing even more tissue damage and (one hopes) neutralizing a bad guy.
To be considered a true assault rifle, the weapon must be capable of selective fire (semi-automatic vs. fully automatic).
Semi automatic means one round is fired each time the trigger is pulled. The rifles El Paso PD wants will not have full auto capability.
However, the term assault rifle now is popularly used to describe many military-style weapons like the M-4, which falls under the definition given in the 1994 federal ban on assault rifles.