Cops find themselves in arms race with criminals

[Lodge2004]

Not directly CHL related, but....this is so horribly biased that I had to post. I would guess this was a press release written by the Brady Bunch. Could a reporter actually get so much wrong in a single article?

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/11/05/cops.guns/index.html

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida (CNN) -- The war on the streets is escalating. As gangs and other criminals pack more firepower, police departments say they find themselves in an arms race.

The officers say they need to level the playing field to survive. And so, on a bright October day about a dozen Palm Beach County sheriff's deputies brought out their big guns at the local firing range.

Rifles crackled. Shell casings flew. Bullets sailed at 3,200 feet per second through paper targets set up a football field's length away.

The sharpshooters weren't training for a SWAT team. These were the deputies who patrol the streets and roads from the glittery Gold Coast to the swamps of the Everglades.

The fatal shooting in September of a Miami-Dade police officer by a man using an assault weapon put all South Florida police departments on edge. Several other officers were wounded by the gunfire.

"It's not nice we have to arm ourselves like the soldiers in Iraq," said Sgt. Laurie Pfeil, who supervises a sheriff's road patrol in Palm Beach County and is now certified to carry a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle on the job. It's the civilian version of the military's M-16 used by U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

"We are like soldiers. It is a war, " says Sgt Pfeil.

Across the country, at least 62 police officers have been gunned down this year -- a record pace, said Robert Tessaro, the associate director for law enforcement relations for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

As a result, the Brady organization supports police officers arming themselves with high-powered weapons "to protect themselves and their communities," he said.

"We're having more than one officer shot and killed a week. It's just outrageous that officers are being targeted," he said. "It's something I think all Americans should be outraged about."

He lays the blame squarely on lawmakers who allowed the assault weapons ban to expire in 2004.

Designed to be fired from the hip, assault rifles such as the AK-47 can spray at a rate of up to 600 rounds a minute in full automatic mode. It is the weapon of choice for guerillas and gangsters.

Cops prefer to squeeze off single shots in semiautomatic mode because it makes for more accurate shooting. Some semiautomatic weapon's can fire with pinpoint accuracy from as far as 100 yards away. The magazines used by law enforcement typically carry 20 or 30 rounds, adding to the ability to better respond under fire.

There's no doubt that urban street warfare, aided by a proliferation of cheap automatic weapons, has come even to Palm Beach County, once high society's vacation mecca and a retirement destination for northern snowbirds.

Assault weapons have been used to kill eight people and wound 25 here over the last two years. Authorities estimate there are about 160 gangs who boast around 7000 members.

"They don't have .38s anymore. They have AK-47s. ...They have automatic weapons now," said Sgt. Pfeil.

So the Palm Beach Sheriff's office, like many others across the county, is training and arming everyone on the force with semiautomatic assault weapons. Many officers say it's about time.

"It's different now. It's shootings on a weekly basis. Ten years ago, that just didn't happen," said Pfeil. "They don't get out and run from us anymore. They stop, and they're shooting at us."

Miami's police department also is in the process of arming every officer with an assault rifle.

"It's a little bit embarrassing that we're engaged in this, but what is the alternative?" said Miami police Chief John Timoney. He said gangs, in particular, are getting their hands on high-powered weapons with apparent ease.

"The streets of South Florida are being flooded by AK-47s and assault weapons from old Soviet bloc countries. It's driven the price down, making the availability greater," said Chief Timoney.

The Miami police department evidence room has seized AK-47s, AR-15s and an assortment of other automatic and semiautomatic weapons piled on shelves from floor to ceiling.

Chief Timoney says he started noticing an increase since the federal assault weapon ban lapsed in 2004. Since then, he says homicides in the city of Miami involving assault weapons have been up -- 18 percent last year and 20 percent this year.

The Miami Police Department said 15 of its 79 homicides last year involved assault weapons, up from the year before. So far this year, 12 of 60 killings have involved the high-powered arms.

Tessaro said he recently attended a conference for the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Among the crime scene tape, squad cars, and other law enforcement gear offered for sale was the latest in high-powered assault weapons.

But it takes time and money to arm everyone. In the case of Palm Beach Sheriff's office, about one-third of its deputies carry assault weapons. It could take a year to get everyone equipped.

Some officers aren't waiting.

Palm Beach Sheriff's deputy Carl Martin bought his own AR-15 and passed the required training.

When his department offered him one of their weapons, he gave it up to someone else who was on the waiting list. "Because there's not enough to go around," he explained.

CNN's Patrick Oppmann, Rich Phillips and Ann O'Neill contributed to this story.

[AFJailor]

"Designed to be fired from the hip, assault rifles such as the AK-47 can spray at a rate of up to 600 rounds a minute in full automatic mode. It is the weapon of choice for guerillas and gangsters."

I wonder how many crimes are actually committed where a criminal even has a fully auto weapon, much less the resources to purchase all those rounds or the knowledge of how to fire at a cyclic rate. (Besides the bank robbery in California)

"Cops prefer to squeeze off single shots in semiautomatic mode because it makes for more accurate shooting. Some semiautomatic weapon's can fire with pinpoint accuracy from as far as 100 yards away. The magazines used by law enforcement typically carry 20 or 30 rounds, adding to the ability to better respond under fire."

This made me laugh pretty loud, man if your only good out to 100 yards with an AR-15 then maybe you should stick to throwing rocks and whatnot.

[ScubaSigGuy]

That's complete rubbish.

I too am curious to know how many crimes actually involve FA weapons. Very, Very few I would guess.

Do editors even require writers to check thier facts anymore?

[AEA]

Does he really think that a return of the AWB will stop the Criminals?
What a fool!

[KinnyLee]

The AWB did absolutely nothing to the availability of AR-15s and AK47s. These fools never seem to understand, it's cosmetics and has nothing to do with the functionalities of the weapons. These "assault weapons" will spit out a bullet regardless of the presence/absense of collapsable stocks or bayonet lugs. Such ignorance.

[Venus Pax]

Why are we surprised that criminals behave like criminals?

Ban the behavior, not the inanimate object. Perhaps if we would follow through on the laws and sentencings that we already have, some of this may stop.

[cbr600]

The obvious answer is to actually catch the criminals, put them in prison, and keep them there until they're rehabilitated or otherwise no longer a threat to decent people. That, or shoot them in the act. Either solution would make the streets safer for the good guys.

The war on the streets is escalating. As gangs and other criminals pack more firepower,

It sounds like he's saying now, more than ever, citizens need the right to keep and bear arms for self defense.

[dukalmighty]

I really love it when somebody with a minimal experience in firearms becomes such an expert and the pinpoint accuracy at a 100 yards made me smile cause i can attain that with my 10-22 low powered non assault rifle with a magazine that can hold up to 50 rounds,

[stevie_d_64]

Something similar, but just as serious...We need to be pretty concerned about this as well...

http://washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dl ... 50077/1001

[Baytown]

I don't want to be the voice of doom , but I think it would be a good time to buy as many rifles and full capacity mags as you can now. It is just a matter of time.

I hope I am wrong.