Pentagon Supplies School Districts with Assault Rifles and Grenade Launchers

[eridani]

Supplying the stuff to police departments may be bad policy, but it isn't illogical. But FUCKING SCHOOL DISTRICTS?!?!?

http://www.nationofchange.org/pentagon-supplies-school-districts-assault-rifles-and-grenade-launchers-1411394539

Due to public outcry, school districts nationwide are debating whether to keep their Pentagon-issued assault rifles, grenade launchers, and Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected (MRAP) vehicles. Donated free of charge as part of the Defense Department’s 1033 Program, surplus military equipment has been dispensed throughout law enforcement agencies and school districts for decades. Recent criticisms of excessive police militarization in Ferguson, Missouri, last month has left many school officials questioning the need for military-grade weapons on campus.

According to the Defense Logistics Agency, over $5 billion in military equipment has been handed out to more than 8,000 law enforcement agencies and at least 26 school districts since 2007. California alone has received 8,533 surplus guns, 7,094 pieces of night-vision equipment, 2,370 bayonets and knives, 49 armored vehicles, 59 airplanes and helicopters, and 18 grenade launchers since 2006.

A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed last month revealed that 61 M16 rifles, 3 grenade launchers, and an MRAP have been transferred to the Los Angeles School Police Department. According to California’s Office of Emergency Services, the Baldwin Park School Police Department received three M16 rifles that they plan to return, while Kern High School District Police received 30 magazines for M4 assault rifle ammunition. Although the Los Angeles Unified School District has agreed to return the grenade launchers, they refuse to relinquish the assault rifles and mine-resistant vehicle.

After receiving an MRAP valued at over $700,000, the San Diego Unified School District intended to soften the vehicle’s image by removing the weapon mounts and gun turrets, painting it white with a Red Cross symbol, and filling the interior with medical supplies and teddy bears. Although law enforcement officials were eager to acquire the armored vehicle, the school district has announced they will be returning the MRAP.

[Jesus Malverde]

1. sick...nt

[yeoman6987]

6. Nobody at the Pentagon can do this without

President Obama's ok. We must be missing something.

[Recursion]

4. Well, no, but if (God forbid) there were a hostage situation in a school

It would be good to have an armored vehicle if you were doing an extraction.

[Hoppy]

5. Yeah, that'll work.

An armed wack-job holding hostages, looking at an armored vehicle coming at him.

Maybe the adrenaline jump from seeing said vehicle coming at him, will certainly settle his nerves and lessen the likelihood he would do something irrational.

[Brigid]

7. Uh, MIRT?

Cleanup in Aisle 3, please.

[BrotherIvan]

9. I'll second that!!!!

But the post count is too high. Where the hell did this poster come from?

[Mister Ed]

15. Looks to me as though the poster intended sarcasm.

The poster probably should have used the sarcasm widget to make that clear. Sarcasm can be difficult to convey in print, without benefit of facial expression or tone of voice to help get the message across.

[BrotherIvan]

10. Wow, bet you're a cop

[F4lconF16]

14. Maybe just me, but I read the post

As sarcasm, as with the poster's other reply in this thread.

[BrotherIvan]

21. Perhaps so

My apologies if true. I've read some irrational and paranoid gun stuff on DU, so nothing surprises me anymore.

[NewDeal_Dem]

8. how crazy are our government officials, really? this is craziness. insanity. i think the entire

country is going insane.

[BrotherIvan]

11. This is where the money goes

The Pentagon has so much crap, they have to give it away! So a school district, like Los Angeles, which often doesn't have books, crumbling/unsafe schools, and classes of upwards of 40 gets exactly what it needs: a MRAP! Suck it kids!

[gladium et scutum]

16. The Government

does not force the school districts to take this equipment. The school district administrations make specific requests to the DOD for this equipment.

[BrotherIvan]

22. They also make requests for more books, teachers, and infrastructure improvements

But funnily enough, the government never has enough money for that.

[sakabatou]

12. Why would they need them?

[PoliticAverse]

13. Inter-school sports rivalries can get pretty intense... n/t

[Katashi_itto]

17. I think they can give it to the football teams and then change the rules. Talk about intense games

Not football but call it something catchy like "BloodBall"!!

[Savannahmann]

18. I would take issue with your opening statement.

Supplying the stuff to police departments may be bad policy, but it isn't illogical

I would argue that it is illogical in addition to bad policy. Let's get serious shall we? When you have something, you use it. Especially when it is massive overkill. The principle adapted from our military, to our police, is overwhelming force. We use a helicopter gunship to attack a sniper. We use artillery to break up an ambush. We use airstrikes to blast a two goat herders standing around with a rusty AK-47 laying on the ground near their tent. Overwhelming force is a phrase we use to describe massive overkill.

The number of incidents where these weapons in the hands of police are counted by the handful in a decade. The most famous, but certainly not the only one, was the bank robbery where two men used AK-47's and body armor to fight the Police. I might point out that the police won in that incident. Then there was the FBI shootout in Miami against bank robbers. A poorly executed and uncoordinated arrest attempt probably had more to do with it than the weapons in use.

So let's say that there is a need for a high powered rifle in the hands of police. Then wouldn't we want it to be the most accurate rifle possible? Quality over quantity in other words? In that case, a bolt action rifle with scope would seem to be a better choice. It would allow the officer to deliver one shot, with nearly pin point accuracy, and end the situation with minimal force.

But what do we see from the Police? Poor training teaches them to keep shooting as long as the individual can move. In other words, empty the magazine. The bigger the magazine, the more bullets are flying.

Let's look at the Boston Bomber situation shall we? At the point of this video, the bad guy was totally out of ammo, and subsequent investigation showed that he did not fire one shot at Police in this situation.

The town was Boston, not Baghdad. Listen again to all that gunfire and know that the baddie didn't fire one round at them.

How about this, where 33 police officers fired 600 rounds at bank robbery suspects killing the hostage. They were in cover, the baddies were contained. There was no escape. If there was ever a time to start talking to them this was it.

Instead every cop there emptied their magazine at the car killing the hostage.

In other words, I find it questionable if the police can be entrusted with the firearms they wear on their belts. I think it is absolutely illogical to entrust even more destruction into their hands.

If your child burns down the house because he was playing with a lighter. You don't give him a blowtorch for Christmas. That is absolutely illogical. That is the situation we find ourselves in now as a society. Public Servant is burning down the house with a lighter, and telling us he needs a blowtorch to do his job.

There are many many more incidents where the police overreacted on a scale that would be unimaginable a few short years ago. Today, the excuse of a threat of a terrorist attack is used to justify enough offensive firepower in the hands of the average police officer that the Marines who took Fallujah would be envious. The cops have enough stuff on their belts that Batman cocks his head and wonders what they need all that crap for. But they only go for one thing, that pistol, as if it is the 1880's in Tombstone Arizona and that's the only tool they have available.

They can't really be trusted with a lighter, why give them a blowtorch, or worse, a flamethrower.

[Lurks Often]

19. More accurately, it is going to the police departments run by those school districts

As for the money, the equipment was bought and paid for years ago and the current equipment is surplus to the military's needs. So the military has a choice, pay for it's destruction, pay for it's storage or give it to law enforcement agencies and/or foreign military allies.

Those law enforcement agencies could just as easily purchase any of that equipment out of their own budgets and many have.

I've read that rifles are converted to semi-automatic only and the grenade launchers are used for tear gas. The night vision is probably just because they can and I have no clue why they want bayonets.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

23. Enhanced dodgeball?