Police gunning to equal criminals' firepower with assault rifles

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Police in Minnesota and elsewhere have upgraded their arsenal to match crooks' growing firepower.

By JIM ADAMS, Star Tribune

Powerful, rapid-fire assault rifles like the AK-47s used in Third World conflicts are increasingly being used in American street fights.

And many cities, from Miami to Minneapolis to Farmington, have issued these semiautomatic rifles to patrol officers to protect themselves and the public.

"We're in an arms race," said Chaska Police Chief Scott Knight, who is chairman of the firearms committee of the International Association of Chiefs of Police. He has ordered 10 AR-15 assault rifles for his officers who, like those elsewhere, have encountered more criminals with high-powered weapons.

Government figures show a marked increase in AK-type weapons traced after they were seized or connected to a crime.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATFE) traced the weapons and entered them into the agency's database. The Associated Press obtained the figures through public records requests.

Police SWAT teams were the first equipped with assault rifles. Patrol officers started getting them after the country watched in horror in 1997 as televised footage showed Los Angeles officers fleeing from two bank robbers spraying bullets from assault rifles at a North Hollywood bank. Police handgun shots bounced off the robbers' body armor. Seven civilians and 11 officers were wounded.

More recently, a Miami-Dade, Fla., officer was killed during a traffic stop last September and three other officers wounded by a driver firing an assault rifle. The cops had only handguns.

Last weekend Chaska police stopped a driver who had illegal drugs, a .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun under his seat and a bulletproof vest in his trunk, Knight said. In another recent example, Chaska officers responding to a domestic assault call found an assault rifle in the hands of a man high on drugs. And about three years ago, they encountered a gang member with a MAC-10 handheld submachine gun.

"There is no escaping the fact that these type of weapons are showing up more and more across the country in incidents where multiple innocent citizens and police officers are being gunned down," Knight said. "I want my officers to have the upper hand."

Weapons, by the numbers

The number of assault rifle entries in the ATFE database rose even while the federal assault weapons ban was in effect and has continued to climb since the ban expired in 2004, allowing people to legally buy the rapid-fire weapons.

Since 1993, the year before the ban took effect, the federal agency has recorded a more than sevenfold increase in assault guns -- including the original Russian-made AK-47 and a variety of copycats from around the world. The number of AK-type guns rose from 1,140 in 1993 to 8,547 last year.

Since 2005, the first full year after the ban's expiration, the ATFE has recorded an 11 percent increase in assault weapons.

The agency says the increases in the first half of the 1990s were partly the result of wider use of its weapons database by local law enforcement agencies.

Minneapolis, St. Paul and many Twin Cities suburbs started replacing shotguns with assault rifles about five years ago, police officials said. St. Paul officers used them last year while chasing a suspect who fired at them and then killed himself, spokesman Tom Walsh said.

In early 2004, two officers in the northern suburb of Ramsey fired high-powered rifles at a pickup driven by a mentally ill man. He had shot out a squad windshield and later drove at officers while holding a shotgun out the pickup window, said Chief Jim Way. No one was injured.

Farmington Chief Brian Lindquist said his officers have found assault rifles in vehicles. People can buy cheaper models of the powerful weapons for a few hundred dollars on the Internet, he noted.

The 10 assault rifles that Knight ordered for the Chaska force cost $900 a piece, including a car lock rack. Officers will carry two 30-bullet clips.

The Minnesota State Patrol started phasing in assault rifles about a decade ago and upgraded them three years ago, said Lt. Mark Peterson. The weapon came in handy for a state trooper who responded to a call in East Grand Forks in October 2006. A camouflage-clad man sprayed bullets at local police, who only had handguns, two blocks from a high school and a local college.

When trooper Sgt. Dean Smith ordered the man to drop his weapons, he opened fire, hitting a dumpster protecting Smith. The trooper returned three shots, hitting the man in the hip. He dragged himself behind a wall and shot himself, patrol records said.

"The change from shotguns to [assault] rifles is becoming much more common throughout law enforcement because law enforcement is getting outgunned by crooks," said Dave Bellows, chief deputy sheriff in Dakota County. He said he supervised the change for the county in about 2000 and, before that, for Lakeville police when he worked on the force.

Not only are police seeing more assault weapons, they also see more bad guys wearing body armor, which stops slugs from less powerful guns.

"Crooks are getting much more sophisticated in what they are wearing and the weapons they are carrying," Bellows said. "Law enforcement can't adequately protect society if we can't adequately protect ourselves."

http://www.startribune.com/local/17144341....?page=2&c=y

[Heracles 417]

How about leveling out the playing field and giving the police the same rights to shoot as the criminals have?

The second some attacks a cop or any government official, they should nullify and forfeit all of their rights. Teaching the criminals that every action ahs an 'equal' and opposite reaction.

My good mate Hal 9000 calls it "cause and effect".

Edited March 23, 2009 by Constellation

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

You don't forfeit "human rights". They are inalienable.

[HAL 9000 96]

You don't forfeit "human rights". They are inalienable.

Unless of course you aren't human.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

You don't forfeit "human rights". They are inalienable.

Unless of course you aren't human.

Yeah - there would be separate laws for Man/Machine cyborgs I'd imagine.

[fozzie 41]

There has to be consequences. A good azz whooping should be the courts 1st option in 'rehabilitating' violent offenders. Its all they understand.

[Heracles 417]

You don't forfeit "human rights". They are inalienable.

Unfortunately the victims don't seem to have this right.

Better luck net time for the 16,204 murdered in the US, right?

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

There has to be consequences. A good azz whooping should be the courts 1st option in 'rehabilitating' violent offenders. Its all they understand.

Violence just breeds more violence though. If it didn't people would get out jail completely rehabilitated - and we know that's not the case.

You don't forfeit "human rights". They are inalienable.

Unfortunately the victims don't seem to have this right.

Better luck net time for the 16,204 murdered in the US, right?

Crime is a fact of life.

[Heracles 417]

There has to be consequences. A good azz whooping should be the courts 1st option in 'rehabilitating' violent offenders. Its all they understand.

Spot on there.

Send them to Singapore or Saudi Arabia for a week.

I guarantee they take the following "what! what!" face and turn it into a saint within a week.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Yeah... cause US jails are such pleasant places...

[Heracles 417]

Crime is a fact of life.

If I sat in an apartment and only traveled to and from work I'd think like that too. For the rest of us, we actually want to do something about it.

Like when we the people see two 'African American' women locked and burned alive in a stolen car, we want to do something about it. I have given up on the liberal laws anyway. If anyone tried to rob or hurt me or my family, I would kill them. No ifs or butts about it. Let Jesse Jackson come to my door and call me a racist for doing so. I'll take that clown out too. That would be two scumbags down.

Edited March 23, 2009 by Constellation

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Crime is a fact of life.

If I sat in an apartment and only traveled to and from work I'd think like that too. For the rest of us, we actually want to do something about it.

Except you won't do anything BY. You'll just talk about it. Again (and again ad infinitum).

Most people do travel to and from work BY - I don't know why that's such a big scandal to you.

[fozzie 41]

There has to be consequences. A good azz whooping should be the courts 1st option in 'rehabilitating' violent offenders. Its all they understand.

Violence just breeds more violence though. If it didn't people would get out jail completely rehabilitated - and we know that's not the case.

You don't forfeit "human rights". They are inalienable.

Unfortunately the victims don't seem to have this right.

Better luck net time for the 16,204 murdered in the US, right?

Crime is a fact of life.

I know but for some its already too late. The trend has already continued to this point and I doubt that many violent criminals are open to being any different. They blame society and take no responibility. Not that an actual azz whooping would do any good but damn it would make the victims feel better!

Crime is a fact of life.

If I sat in an apartment and only traveled to and from work I'd think like that too. For the rest of us, we actually want to do something about it.

Except you won't do anything BY. You'll just talk about it. Again (and again ad infinitum).

Most people do travel to and from work BY - I don't know why that's such a big scandal to you.

He's probably a bum, has no job or home so he doesn't need to travel between them. Oh, and gets $110 ph to do it.

Edited March 23, 2009 by fozzie

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I don't know that it would to be honest.

Outside of petty revenge fantasies people play in their heads (if only I had 5 minutes alone in a room with the guy), no judicial system outside of Iran or Saudi Arabia is designed around indulging such things.

[Heracles 417]

I know but for some its already too late. The trend has already continued to this point and I doubt that many violent criminals are open to being any different. They blame society and take no responibility. Not that an actual azz whooping would do any good but damn it would make the victims feel better!

Of course. There are a lot of neighborhoods that are gone. No amount of money or so-called education will fix the mess. The only solution is proactive policing. Police on the streets and random spot checks. As well as strict anti-loitering laws. It's not the first time a few towns have gone to ###### in history that required strong-arm tactics to bring them back.

Edited March 23, 2009 by Constellation