General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Martin O'Malley is getting some media scrutiny re Baltimore today... [View all]Lurks Often
(5,455 posts)Not really, the shotgun formerly found in many police cars was far more lethal and more indiscriminate then the rifles that have replaced the shotgun. I am not sure that the rifle replaced the shotgun on a 1 for 1 basis. At least locally one used to see shotguns locked to in a dashboard mount in most marked police cars. Now the shotguns are gone and there is no rifle visible, so it's either in the trunk, not issued or only issued to select officers such as supervisors or swat team members who normally work as patrol officers in smaller towns.
As for handguns, police have switched from revolvers either in the 38 Special or .357 Magnum (as or more powerful then any issued semi-automatic) partly due to the drug wars of the 80's and partly because the FBI has always been a major trend setter among law enforcement agencies and the FBI switched over to semi-automatics after the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1986_FBI_Miami_shootout