Letter To The Editor: Response To Mr. Spencer

By RICHARD NEBEL
Los Alamos
 
In response to Mr. Spencer (link):

 

First of all, I don’t get “unnerved” around firearms. I grew up around them. Down at the farm, Grandma had a double-barreled 12 gauge shotgun hanging over the back door. Obviously, that didn’t have a 30 round banana clip hanging off of it. The people who needed that kind of equipment were people who couldn’t hit what they were shooting at. Grandma didn’t have that problem.
 
So, do the police need that kind of equipment in their cruisers? An AR-15 or a mini-14 is easily lethal out to 500 yards. If they are using the military issue LAP round, it can penetrate a ¼ inch of steel. That doesn’t mix well in an urban environment. It doesn’t even make sense in a rural environment.  How many arrests are you going to make at 500 yards? Do you really need to be spraying bullets all over creation? I wasn’t “unnerved” by the deputies. I just thought it was stupid.
 
As to situations like the infamous North Hollywood shootout, let me offer the following solution. Police departments can buy pointed stainless steel slugs for their shotguns (no, I’m not opposed to cruisers equipped with shotguns) that shoot a 1 oz. slug at about 1,900 ft./sec. I suspect that would even make a mess out of class 4 body armor. Slug technology has improved tremendously over the last 30 years. They have a shorter range than an AR-15 so they are safer to use. It’s certainly better than spraying 2,000 rounds of ammunition like they did in North Hollywood. If you tried spraying 2,000 rounds out of 12 gauge slug gun, your shoulder would fall off.
 
As for corruption in police departments, do you think it is more likely that you will have collusion between seven Councilors, the county manager and the police to commit wrongdoing or that a single “independent” patronage politician whose employees owe him their jobs will become corrupt? The people who are arguing for the expanded Sheriff’s Department apparently think the former is true. That doesn’t make any sense.
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