[qrendel]

I was a bit shocked, though I probably shouldn't have been, to notice recently that police in the local airport all carry assault rifles now. Assault rifles. I'm not that knowledgeable about guns, so I'm not sure what kind exactly - maybe M-16s?

A few years ago there was something about military personnel being stationed with unloaded rifles in airports as part of the War on Terror(TM). I now imagine that was to desensitize us to this future - everyday cops carrying loaded assault rifles in public all the time.

The U.S. really has become a police state.

[hga]

The reason the military personnel carried unloaded weapons is that commanding officers live in fear of an negligent discharge ending their career, this was true for most base sentries before and after 9/11, you can pretty much only count on those guarding nuclear weapons to have rounds in their weapons. "Nothing personal".

As for police carrying rifles/carbines in our airports today, well, they're much better weapons than pistols, more accurate and more likely to hit the target and not an innocent, much harder hitting if they have the right ammo in them, all police should have a "patrol carbine" instead of a shotgun in their trunk or secured in the passenger space of their vehicles.

The only question here, is the threat level at the airport high enough that routinely carrying rifles is warranted? That I can't say, but as noted by others, it's routine in more "civilized" Europe.

[Zigurd]

In Europe, it depends on the cop: Traffic cops are often unarmed schlubs. Federal police are armed and well-trained. China also seems to have multiple tiers of cops and relatively few are carrying guns in public.

[chiph]

This is partly because of the North Hollywood bank robbery, with the two men dressed head-to-toe in home-made body armor, where the 9 mm pistols and shotguns the police had were ineffective in stopping them. Some of the cops went to local gunshops to borrow some AR-15s that were able to penetrate the armor.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Hollywood_shootout

Afterwards, a lot of police departments started issuing Patrol Rifles (M-16s) to their officers (usually carried in the trunk of their cars) either purchased from firearm dealers/wholesalers, but also via the Department of Defense's 1033 program.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1033_program

[knz]

> The U.S. really has become a police state.

Seeing heavily armed police (with actual assault rifles not AR-15's) and paramilitary members (the Carabinieri and Gendarmerie etc) is much more common in Europe than the US and been the case for decades.

[maxerickson]

Full automatic fire isn't really that interesting of a distinction. 30-40 shots spread over a few minutes is probably going to do more damage than 30-40 shots in a minute.

And if you consider how a police officer acting in the public interest is going to use it, there isn't really any difference at all between automatic and semiautomatic fire.

[pc86]

The only benefit of automatic fire is for suppression. How often are police officers in situations requiring suppressive fire?

There is no need for police officers to have automatic weapons during the course of their duties.

[rsync]

"I was a bit shocked, though I probably shouldn't have been, to notice recently that police in the local airport all carry assault rifles now. Assault rifles. I'm not that knowledgeable about guns, so I'm not sure what kind exactly - maybe M-16s?"

Airport police in every European airport I have ever traveled in, since well before 9/11, have always carried fully automatic submachineguns.

The US may or may not be a police state, but that's not a good metric upon which to gauge it.

[ekianjo]

> everyday cops carrying loaded assault rifles in public all the time.

It's to protect you against these evil terrorists who hate your Freedom! I'm joking, but that's basically what politicians in the US say the whole time to justify such measures. 9/11 has been a Godsend for all the ones who wanted to push for militarization of police forces.

[67726e]

My office is in the same building as a police substation. Every day when I leave it's the officers' shift change, so I'm walking while a bunch of officers are milling about, holding M4s in the parking lot. I own and shoot firearms, but it's a bit fucking insane.