"Issues arise on big guns in localities; Some state guidelines for police unenforced" by Donovan Slack, Globe Staff | June 15, 2009
Police in Wellfleet, a community known for stunning beaches and succulent oysters, scored three military assault rifles. At Salem State College, where recent police calls have included false fire alarms and a goat roaming the campus, school police got two M-16s. In West Springfield, police acquired even more powerful weaponry: two military-issue, M-79 grenade launchers.
Some 82 local police departments in Massachusetts, many of them quiet hamlets, have obtained more than 1,000 weapons over the last 15 years under a federal program that distributes surplus guns from the US military, the Globe reported earlier this month. Now, new information identifies which communities received the weapons....
most did not notify their community of the acquisitions. It also found inconsistencies in how the program is monitored, including cases in which communities received more guns than allowed....
"You never know what's going to happen. Anything can happen, anywhere," said Mark Laverdure, the police chief in Clinton, a town on the Wachusett Reservoir in Central Massachusetts that ordered 18 assault rifles from the government earlier this year....
Sigh. I'm all feared out, man.
Many local police officials said they ordered the weapons to prepare for a catastrophic event like the shooting rampage at Columbine High School in 1999, when two teens used automatic weapons to gun down students, and a bank robbery in Los Angeles in 1997 when two robbers with automatic rifles injured 10 police officers in a shootout. More recently, terrorists armed with automatic weapons and grenades killed 166 people in Mumbai last November....
Yup, foist the the COLUMBINE and MUMBAI LIES upon us, agenda-pushers!!!!!
Looks like the screaming and hollering worked (or the propaganda has been put out so we will all just shut up about the secret tyranny):
"State suspends weapons program; Officials pledge new review for powerful guns" by Milton J. Valencia and Donovan Slack, Globe Staff | June 16, 2009
The state Department of Public Safety yesterday suspended a controversial program that distributes high-powered US military weapons to police departments across the state, amid growing concerns with the scale of guns handed out and the lack of oversight involved.
Terrel Harris, spokesman for the department, said yesterday that the program will remain suspended until the completion of a thorough review looking at the way it is run, the weapons involved, and the communities that get them....
The suspension, ordered by Governor Deval Patrick, follows a Globe review that shows 82 local police departments in Massachusetts have obtained more than 1,000 military grade weapons over the last 15 years, far more than previously revealed. Under the program, administered by the State Police, departments can apply for equipment declared surplus by the US military.
When do we stop feeding the military beast, 'eh?
Can't find better uses for the money?
But a Globe review has found that even the most quiet of hamlets have received high-powered weaponry, including M-16 fully automatic machine guns and M-14 semiautomatic rifles. In West Springfield, police received two military issue, M-79 grenade launchers. In most cases, the departments obtained the weaponry without any type of community or legislative input....
Local police officials have defended their requests for the weapons, citing the need to be prepared for disastrous events that can occur in any city or town, such as the 1999 shooting rampage at Columbine High School. In Boston, interest grew in the program after terrorists armed with automatic weapons and grenades killed 166 people last November in Mumbai....
I already covered those; think the agenda-pushers are trying to make a point?
