Agree 110%, I am glad they are or were issued to ski areas, if they were in the hands of cops for some stupid legal bearing of arms purpose I fear the day the chief decides to do an artillery strike with the avalanche guns when confronted by a siege or something. Wasn’t there an op in the 80s, some sort of black nationalist vs police seige where the cops dropped a bomb on a house burning it down with occupants from a Cessna or something similar?
I feel like more and more dangerous weaponizable stuff is only entrusted to the cops not unlike NATO nuclear sharing where the nukes for the Dutch, Italians, TUrks, etc are entrusted to USAF or US Army officer with the fuse key.
1 Like
Here in Germany the police used to prepare for all kinds of quaint bizarre Cold War scenarios like large-scale Communist insurgency. But at least those were relatively small state-level units separate from the everyday police (and we don’t have a National Guard.) There are still slightly ridiculous remnants of that, but they are mostly hushed up and police has become much less militarized over the decades.
1 Like
You’re quite right, but about six months late.
It’s artisanal.
2 Likes
From what I’ve seen in various exposés, military pricing seems to be quite arbitrary, presumably depending on the specific contract. (And, I’d wager, on the contractor’s level of success in seducing the Pentagon brass.) It’s almost always high. Police gear is not exactly a bargain, but prices seem almost reasonable in comparison.
The Pentagon is like a spoiled rich kid who whines and cries when his astronomical allowance gets cut by a few percentage points. Neither they, nor their backers in Congress, have any idea what it means to live within a budget.
1 Like
I was just about to comment that the A10s are getting old. When gear gets old, they hand it out!
Imagine - LAPD/AF. Awesome! Forget CHiPS - you get an airborne arsenal! Yeehaw!
1 Like
Aw, man, you threw me down the rabbit hole.
TVTropes is much more insidious than RickRolling or Goatse-ing, if you ask me.
3 Likes
I honestly find it kinda impolite for people to reference TV tropes. It feels like someone handing me a bottle of scotch and telling me to get lost. I know I’ll enjoy it, but after consumption I won’t have the wherewithal to get back into the discussion I originally meant to be a part of.
3 Likes
The French Gendarmerie are extremely well-armed, including tank destroyers, but they are actually soldiers rather than police.
Also, the military equipment is either for the Gendarmes’ secondary role as emergency light infantry in the event of invasion, or for when they get sent abroad for UN peacekeeping missions.
1 Like
They need those rocket launchers in case the Russians invade and the locals have to fight them off like in that movie ’ Jingle all the Way 2 ’
4 Likes
The warden service of Maine’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife received a small aircraft, 96 night vision goggles, 67 gun sights and seven M-14 rifles.
I can definitely see the usefulness of a small aircraft and night vision goggles for a fish and wildlife department. Why they would need 7 enhanced battle rifles? Who are these people going to shoot, John Rambo?
2 Likes
12,000 bayonets!? Do they thing they’ll run out of ammo?
1 Like
The Zebra Printers we buy for the factory floor are north of a $1000 and we get good pricing on them.
And really, is there a better name for a barcode printer then Zebra?
2 Likes
2 Likes
Can’t speak to the scopes, but my immediate guess as to the rifles would be that they probably were seen as a cheap option that can be given to wardens who have to head into a remote area for a while.
(Total cost of the 7 rifles: $966, or $138 per rifle. A cheap rifle chambered to take Winchester .308* will likely cost you roughly double that at least. A decent .308 will cost you a lot more.)
* I’m using .308 as a comparison point since they’re fairly standard rifles, and therefore widely available, that can use 7.62 NATO cartridges.
1 Like
Reading the article, there is zero mention of “rocket launcher” anywhere in it. I think this is just another example of BoingBoing’s ‘making stuff up’ tendency with respect to this sort of stuff. I think they just thought grenade launchers (for firing tear gas grenades) and rocket launchers are the same thing, in the same way that trucks and tanks are the same thing.
1 Like
It’s an automatic rifle. What does a game warden need an automatic rifle for? My guess is that any savings over the cost of a standard .308 single shot hunting rifle will be lost by wardens spraying targets on full auto for kicks.
Something like the NEF Handi Rifle at less than $300 per unit is all any warden should need. Or, if savings are a must, the $62.04 Rossi R308MBS is a decent enough rifle for field protection. I can’t think of a scenario where an automatic rifle is needed, but maybe I’m missing something.
Neither can I. (Admittedly, I have no idea the full extent of their duties, so maybe there is a case where it is.) Was merely trying to come up with an explanation that seemed plausible.
1 Like
Are all M-14s capable of full-auto fire? My dad used one in JROTC when he was in high school in the 70s, and I certainly don’t think those were. Also IIRC the designated-marksman versions aren’t.
Do we know that the rifles given to the game wardens were full-auto?
As far as I know, most issued M-14s were full auto capable, but needed the selector switch, which, based on some reading, was often not given out with the rifles and stored separately. Because it was so tough to control, they were usually used as as semi-automatic rifles.
There WAS a national match version of the M-14 used for shooting competition purposes, which was semi-auto only.
