Dawn, how are the police officers supposed to do their job if the attackers have much better weapons than they have? That would be like giveing the bad guys guns while the police can only use sling shots! Think about it, if you or your family really needed protection, wouldn't you hope the police could provide that for you? Well they need the best tools to do that and the AR-15 is an excellant weapon of choice for riots or attacks. Every police force needs to have these weapons on hand at all times. I don't mean the officers should carry them like they do their handguns, but if needed, they should be able to get them.

Blue Mann....if the attackers are armed with them, and they would be, what are the cops going to do against that? These weapons need to be at hand at all times otherwise the police are useless up against that kind of attack.

+3 James, good comments

I hear you, Kurt. I own several AR-15s and never paid anywhere close to $2000 for any one of them, even with AimPoint and EoTech optics.

Yeah Kurt these weapons can be bought for less than half of that. And here is another question...if the police officers are forced to pay for them, does that mean if they leave the force they will be able to take them with them? What if, and it does happen, that an ex-police officer goes nuts for some reason, then he has his own AR-15, but he they had to purchace their own, it wouldnt be fair to have to leave it with the force if they were fired or whatever.

B.A. ......does that mean if they leave the force the weapons would be theirs to take since they paid for them?

Good question, Maxine. I don't know for sure, and I can ask.

Maxine - good comments overall, but I think you are visualizing something that may never happen. ( It might, of course , but chances are it won't , at least not on the scale most of the comments are visualizing ). Most of the terrorist attacks on the other side of the world involve suicide vests or car bombs. No rifles at all.

If we go with the picture you have painted that all the attackers will be armed with AR15's, we'd better make sure the cops have M60's or larger ( 7.62 ammo, or larger , maybe even 50 cal. )

And, for Stephens comments : the worst massacre in our modern day USA involved a student with 2 handguns. All the cops outside ( at V T ) had lots and lots of AR15's but it didn't do a bit of good. The guy was inside the building with the doors chained shut.

@Kurt B. That's a good point, I don't think the AR-15s or gun control (more guns or less guns) sadly will completely prevent the carnage caused by motivated, deranged individuals who want the highest body count possible: the Oklahoma City bombing and 9-11 fit this profile tragically well, extremists causing brutal destruction with a truck full of farm chemicals, and airplanes hijacked with box cutters.

When it comes to public safety, it's all about maximizing the percentages for what you can reasonably anticipate is likely will happen, but of course you can't anticipate every situation. That's true whether you're for more gun control or for police with heavier weaponry.

Kurt, it may not ever happen but I would much rather the police could just go back to their department and get what they needed instead of having to go purchase them if they are needed. Strange things are happening in smaller communities everyday and one can never predict the future and I still feel it is better to be over prepared than be sitting ducks.

I have since looked it up, and in California they actually did both: increased their gun control (actually it was more ammo clip control) and the LAPD did add more high-powered rifles. Although, as pointed out below, they were almost certainly the semi-automatic and not the fully automatic variety.

I talked to a couple other police forces this week that have a few officers on each shift, or a specialized unit, that carry these weapons, but not each officer. In Marion they have a specialized unit that carries AR-15s already, but not every officer, which is the direction they are moving.

Maybe your officers are honorable men, but not all are. I can not see putting an AR-15 in the hands of someone like ex DSM officer Brandon Singleton.

@Jim. Neither can I. I don't think any person would approve of giving a weapon to someone like that. However I won't be in Fear of one bad cop causing concern for the safety of Citizens and Officers.

@Shane and @Jim. That's an interesting point. I wonder if there is any legal liability problems of officers owning their own equipment, since police are justifiably scrutinized heavily (or should be) whenever they use force, especially deadly force. If they are using the city's equipment this might afford them more protection in this case? I'm not a lawyer so that answer isn't clear to me, might be an interesting question to ask as the story develops.

Also, does anyone know the percentage of police officers and military personnel that keep their service weaponry after retirement or discharge respectively?

So no "Tommy Guns" for the Marion Police then? What if Zombie Capone returns from the grave to start a new criminal empire? ;)