Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Trading For What Now?

An example of a poorly written article:
 Vernon police want to phase out their arsenal of bean bag-propelling shotguns on favor of a more efficient "less than lethal" weapons system.
Police are asking permission from the Town Council to trade 20 Mossberg Model 590A1 shotguns to a "licensed federal firearms dealer" in exchange for 14 new Glock Model 36 handguns.
What?  Since when does .45ACP become 'less than lethal' unless you buy really expensive, specialty ammo? 

Not until the end of the article does this appear:
Lt. William Meier on Friday said the newer system is a 40mm launcher that fires rubber-coated projectiles. SWAT officers currently use that system, he said. 
Well that makes more sense. Too bad the rest of the article talks about 'more efficient system' and handguns in the same context.

Is there any wonder the general public has no clue about the specifics of firearms?

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5 comments:

Erin Palette said...

I am confused. First they are trading shotguns for pistols... how does the 40mm factor into this?

Thirdpower said...

That's the 'new system' they're buying. Like I said, poorly written article.

Erin Palette said...

So to clarify: They are phasing out the beanbag shotguns to get the 40mm.

In related news, they are ALSO trading 20 shotguns (which might or might not be the beanbag guns) for 15 Glocks.

Is that about right?

Thirdpower said...

and you just proved (again) that you are a better journalist than the author of the original piece.

Erin Palette said...

Aww, you flatter me. But since I don't have a journalism degree, I'll never be a "proper" reporter.

What I find hilarious is the notion that a 40mm is more efficient than a shotgun. Sure, I imagine its ouch-per-shot ratio is higher, but either it's a break-action like the M79 -- in which case you've just traded a pump action for a single shot weapon -- or it's one of the those ultra-pricey revolver types, in which case I really doubt they can afford to equip every squad car with one like they did with the shotguns.

So basically, instead of a toolkit that every officer could carry and use, they've invested in an expensive system that has to be expressly brought to the trouble zone in the hopes it can be deployed in time.

"Efficient." Yeah.