[mrwatch]

http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2008/jul/23/chattanooga-police-unveil-new-assault-rifles/?local

Thank goodness for free drug money.

[cpttango30]

Why not use drug money to help drug abuse and additiction programs. That would make more since to me than to be buying more guns for cops that can barly handel a pistol.

[Dillinger]

"250 new Bushmaster .223 caliber rifles - The rifles cost $701.54 each"

Doesn't sound like anything special to me. Though that is $175 thousand dollars in one purchase. These are standard in all the City's around us. Kent PD and King County Sheriff all carry them in their patrol cars.

$700 is a good price for a well built AR though. I imagine Bushmaster gave them a bulk deal, and the name recognition isn't a bad thing for them.

JD

[robocop10mm]

We have been procuring AR's for several years now. Patrol officers have had the option of carrying their own rifle for 25+ years. Minimum caliber .223, max .30-06, no magnums allowed, scoped or iron sighted. 30 hour intensive course and anual qualifications required. I carry two, a Colt AR-15 Gov't Carbine and an HK-91. Depends on the situation which one I go to.

Goal is to eventually have an AR and a shotgun in every car. The presence of a rifle (especially an AR) in a volitile situation tends to scare the bejesus out of the run of the mill turd. They assume SWAT is already there. I have had several armed subjects drop their own long guns and give up or run away upon seeing the profile of what looks to them to be a machine gun.