<center><img src="http://jalopnik.com/assets/images/jalopnik/2008/09/Put-Down-The-TV.jpg"></center><p><ul><li><a href="http://jalopnik.com/5044539/rambo-p-coltrane-south-carolina-sheriff-invests-in-apc-armed-with-50+cal-machine-gun">APC W 50 Cal.</a></li></ul>

Helluva deal if you ask me. So Ma Deuce sits unused most/all of the time....still a deal.

Besides, this way his SWAT team is cooler than yours :)

I dont really care what weapons the cops have access too.

that being said, aren't cops liable for every shot they take? Can they claim responsibility for every round out of that .50 cal machine gun?

I don't care about the cops having it, I just wonder what possible realistic uses are for it.

Because of those laws, the police are now on the bottom of the food chain on hand me down military equipment.

For example Post-Samples can be made by Class2 manufacturers or obtained by Class3 dealers with a Law Enforcement letter. Hence, this puts local Sheriffs in a very good position to obtain Full automatic weapons and heavy firepower at insanely low prices. Many of these ex military weapons are either destroy or sell off as post-samples. Which means their actual value is very small on the open market.

Any sheriff's office could build up a small arsenal at their disposal by working hand in hand with local class 3 dealers.

I don't agree with the system in that it empowers the police to an unreasonable level, but thats exactly why something like that might actually cost that department very little.

Don't know about the Abrams/Bradley, but we use Leopard 2 and CV90, and I hear cavalrymen say that what requires by far most work is all the small gadgets stuffed into the turret. The hull just has tracks, engine and transmission, all of which are easy to do scheduled maintenance on and hardly ever fails unexpectedly.

what's next mortars?

i think i better call Russia and see if I can get a King Tiger.

than stuff either gets destroyed or finds itself in the hands of law enforcement.

Whereas, before ATF was around, that stuff could possibly be in civilian and collectors hands. Keep in mind that most of that equipment is scraped and demil as junk, or like all the thompson submachineguns that the army had, dumped into the ocean when the army was through with them..

Skilled shooter in large building with excellent field of fire in all directions. Not possible to drive regular wheeled vehicle up to the building except for one or maybe two roads. Bad guy's rifle too powerful for the armour carried by regular police vehicles. Range from cover to building too large to use CS grenades.

When that happened here there was a lot of legal work to locate and transfer a SISU (armoured 8x8 military vehicle) to civilian police, find a non-military person skilled to drive it, then they drove it to the house and through the wall before firing the vehicle-mounted grenade launchers loaded with CS indoors. Constitution here says use of military force against citizens not legal, thus the massive paperwork involved in making it all civilian. Don't know about the laws regarding use of military against citizens in USA/SC.

I can imagine the M113 has less dramatic uses as well. Nice road block that can't be pushed away even by the largest SUVs. Very effective as a ram against barricaded doors, with complete safety as opposed to having exposed officers carrying a ram. Can probably tow very heavy crashed vehicles.

My dad used one at NTC back in the 60s to haul tons of beer into the field. :-)