West Memphis police to carry semiautomatic rifles

West Memphis police will for the first time equip some patrol officers with AR-15 semiautomatic rifles...Evans and Paudert, who had arrived that morning to back up Evans, died after 16-year-old Joseph Kane shot them with an AK-47 rifle...officers armed with Glock 22 pistols and body armor that would not stop AK-47 bullets would have been defenseless in the shootout...An Arkansas Game & Fish Commission officer armed with an M-4 rifle and SWAT team officers with AR-15 rifles made the difference...The AR-15 semiautomatic rifles...are widely chosen by law enforcement agencies, said Tim Givens, chief instructor for Rangemaster, a gun training facility in Memphis. The rifles have low recoil, and as a version of M-16 military rifles, police officers who served in the military are familiar with them.
AR-15 rifles are semiautomatic, meaning the trigger must be pulled each time a shot is fired. Automatic weapons keep firing when the trigger is pulled. Givens said a rifle must have the ability to be fully automatic to be dubbed an "assault rifle," which means the AR-15 is not one.
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Full story @ The Memphis Commercial Appeal
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Nice to see some accurate information about semi-autos presented for a change. I have to assume the "AK-47" mentioned was a semi-auto also. Too bad Officers had to die before the decision was made to upgrade to AR-15's however...(S9)