APD to buy 350-plus AR-15 rifles

[Lee-Lee]

4. Honestly I see no issue

When I was a deputy I had an AR-15 in my trunk. For any kind of active shooter response or standoff it is far better than a handgun or shotgun.

My department issued shotguns, if we wanted to carry an AR-15 we had to buy our own (sergeants and above had them issued if they wanted) and the department would provide magazines, ammo and magazine pouches.

I am not a big person, and with the far lower recoil I was much more accurate with an AR, and a lot more comfortable.

Odds are those 350 AR-15's will go to replace 350 shotguns. This is a natural evolution in the LE world, and actually one you should want.

Compared to a shotgun, and AR-15 is a lot easier to master, meaning when they need to use it the officers will be more capable of being accurate and effective and not causing collateral damage. They are a lot easier for smaller shooters, especially female officers, to master. They are much more accurate and far less likely to send projectiles past the target into something else than a shotgun that spreads large lead pellets out in a wide pattern.

I know the knees-jerk reaction here is "OMG AR-15" but there is really no reason to oppose it. Here are your 3 options:

Handguns only- this means officers are restricted to sidearms that are effective out to about 50-75 feet, at best, and that is iffy under stress. They will not penetrate body armor and are difficult to make precise shots with past about 50 feet, especially under stress. While fine for many things, not good for response to an active shooter situation like a school shooting, not good for a hostage standoff, etc.

Next choice is shotguns- likely what they have now. Loaded with buckshot they are effective to about 35-40 yards, but even at that range the shot spreads. They showed is in school that a good rule of thumb is your buckshot spread about 1" per yard, so at 35 yards the buckshot is out in about a 3 foot circle. Not ideal, because any pellets that don't strike the target go on to something else. Recoil is heavy, making it harder to master and be effective with. Better for active shooter situations than a pistol, but not ideal when there may be a shooter with bystanders or victims in close proximity.

Then there is the AR-15. Since it is a rifle it just shoots one .22 inch bullet per shot instead of a dozen or so pellets like the shotgun. It is very accurate and easy to master, I could have any of you hitting a pie plate at 100 yards with minimal instruction. Much more likely to hit the intended target and much less likely to also send projectiles past it either from a miss or from the wide spread a shotgun has.

So, your choice is an option that leaves officer with only handguns, making them ineffective in bad scenarios, leaving them with shotguns now that are much less accurate and likely to also hit bystanders when used, or the most accurate and effective tool that is least likely to miss and doesn't shoot a dozen or so projectiles in a wide pattern when fired.

I would rather officers responding to an active shooter next to my house have a rifle than a shotgun any day of the week. But that's just my option based on actually having carried both on the job.