Wednesday, July 20, 2016

OK: Police Chief OKs Personal Rifles for Officers



image from newsok.com


After the Dallas police massacre, the Oklahoma City police union asked that officers be allowed to carry their personal rifles with them at work. From newsok.com:
Citing the deaths of five officers in Dallas last week, the Fraternal Order of Police has asked that Oklahoma City officers be allowed to carry their personal rifles and ammunition and be issued additional body armor.

A century ago, it was common for law officers to provide their own firearms. In many small departments, personal firearms are still the norm.  But the trend toward uniformity and liability lawsuits have pushed most departments to standardize on firearms, if for no other reason than standardized training.  At first, Police Chief Bill Citty refused the union request.  He said that there were enough rifles to go around. After the shootings in Baton Rouge, he changed his mind. From news9.com:
OKLAHOMA CITY -

Oklahoma City Police Chief Bill Citty now says officers will be able to carry their own rifles until the department can purchase additional weapons.

Chief Citty said in press conference Monday that he had changed his mind on the issue following Sunday's attack in Baton Rouge, La. that left three law enforcement officers dead and three injured."The threats are real," said Citty.
Officers will have to qualify with their own rifles, and use department issued ammunition.   The department currently has about 285 rifles for 520 officers.  The department is going to buy more rifles.  The police chief says the policy will be a temporary one. From kfor.com:
Citty says he wants to have control over those high-powered weapons, so the city will be purchasing rifles for the remaining officers in the field.

Until those guns arrive, officers will be able to carry their personal rifles, if the weapon is approved and they qualify.
The idea of officers having their own rifles has merit.  Personally owned arms have the advantage of supporting the idea of officers as citizens, instead of merely enforcers of the commands of those above them. People tend to take care of their own equipment better than something that belongs to a impersonal organization.  Inspections and qualifications can apply to personally owned arms as well as department owned arms.

 ©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch


6 comments:

Anonymous said...


they certainly look proud of those weapons, notice the bare arms and legs and heads sticking out from their body armor? Knowing they have body armor does not stop hits that create heavy bleeding. why waste bullets on areas covered by body armor? firing lots of rounds does not make you a good shot. Hitting what you are aiming at making hits is much more important than wasting ammo. overwhelming forces make for more targets. well planed defenses eliminate large forces. running out of ammo creates great losses. every good hit reduces the large forces by a third or more. it takes at least three people to care for one injured. the VC knew medics were great targets. even a .22 can make a deadly wound if the bleeding is not stopped. an arm hit stops them from using their weapons and leg hit stops them from moving and a head hit just stops them cold. Most American gun owners grew up hunting. Most of the government trash were taught after they grew up and just do not have the skills of life long gun owners. ex military and life long gun owners are a worthy combination not found in other countries or big city volunteer militaries. most of the volunteer army are there to get a paycheck. they never considered actually having to go to war. todays technology is great but how great are technicians at shooting. Not everybody gets trained as a sniper. take the high tech scope away from most snipers and they are no better than anyone else. I met a marine sniper once he was very proud of hitting a target with a 1200 dollar scope at 1000 yards. he was extremely surprised when I hit the same target with open sights.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, BLM folks! Your actions have begun a new, even deadlier, escalation of the Police State and militarization of the police.

And, this policy raises significant legal and constitutional questions:
1. Are officers still indemnified by their department when they carry/use their own firearms?
2. Does issue of department ammo automatically indemnify officers who carry/use their own firearms?

Anonymous said...

Are Citizens responsible for their actions? are cops citizens? why are citizens billed for the cost of the insurance to indemnify cops to protect them from abusing other citizens? even if you win a law suit against a department how does that money bring back the person murdered by cop or remove the terrifying experience from the mind of the victim. Maybe that indemnification policy is the root of the problem. If there is no restraint required there will be no restraint. Power corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. take away the indemnification and see what changes.

Anonymous said...

One minor point. While personally owned weapons are fine up to a point, it would be a good idea to limit them to a select few calibers that could use interchangeable ammunition for each caliber. My guesses would be 5.56x45mm NATO, .30-30 Winchester, and .30-06 Springfield.

Anonymous said...

Let me ask the second poster at 01;22:00 PM IF HE HAS EVER SEEN A REAL GUN OR SERVED ANY TIME IN THE MILITARY? then I would like to know if he would please tell me what weapon uses interchangeable ammunition like 5.56 x45 mm ammo and 30-30 or 30-06? His statement as posted appears to be that of a troll or an extremely uneducated individual the kind that has a big hat and never been on a ranch. Personally I do not know of any weapon that could use those calibers interchangeably without reconfiguring the entire weapon. Even if you changed the upper the magazines are completely different in size. Maybe that person needs to read what he wrote and complete his thoughts or avoid trying to sound like he knows what he is talking about. I have those ammunitions and weapons. If such a weapon exist I do not think I would want one. I have been in the business of selling fire arms and I have never seen such a weapon in or out of the military. If such a weapon exist Maybe we could get one of those weapons made that shoots .22 cal. and 50 cal. backed up by 9mm. I would be happy to invite that poster to my home and let him actually touch those weapons if he can guaranteed not to piss his pants on my carpet. I can only guess that trolls and anti gunners are everywhere.
I did see barrel inserts for shotguns once that would change a 12 gauge shotgun into a .410 but I do not know anyone that ever bought one.

Anonymous said...

I make my own ammo (reload) I can put 110 GRAIN BULLET IN A 30-30 OR I CAN PUT A 170 GRAIN BULLET IN A 30-30 SO WHAT IS POSTER NUMBER TWO TALKING ABOUT?