California Attorney General says feds not exempt from state ‘safe’ handgun law (with poll)

[sarisataka]

6. I had to think it over before voting my own poll

I was hung up on the thought of should specialty units, like SWAT, have access to automatic weapons.
After much thought, my conclusion was no.

Tactical units have two distinct needs, long range weapons for snipers and general purpose for the other team members.

There are very few sniper rifles not available to citizens since they are not any different from good hunting rifles. One sniper I spoke to some years back used his personal rifle that he hunted small game. It was extremely accurate and he could not envision having to take a shot over 100 yards in an urban environment.

Shotguns are often used but are also available to average citizens. Ammo, such as bean bag rounds and lock breakers, are what adds flexibility that is useful for police work.

Lastly is the needs of carbines. Typically police use some form of selectable fire carbine or submachine gun. I am familiar with the value of full auto or burst capability for clearing confined areas, yet that was always in a free-fire environment. Whenever there was a potential of non-combatant presence or friendly fire, everyone used single shot setting. Training in target ID and engaging with double or triple taps made the selectable option irrelevant. I see no reason LEOs could not use the same standards and use weapons that are only single shot capable.

The side benefit of restricting LEOs to the same standard as your neighbor is it reduces the militarization of police that we see growing at an alarming rate.