The University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, VA has purchased 3 "patrol rifles" for its campus police that several media folk called "M4 semi-automatic rifles" which is not correct, and then goes on to say that they are "the same rifles used by Soldiers in Iraq."
First, the Colt M4 is used by Soldiers in Iraq and it is a select fire rifle, meaning it can be switched between semi-automatic and automatic fire. These rifles that the UMW police have are "semi-automatic" according to...everyone apparently, which would not be the Colt M4, so which is it? I mean my semi-automatic M4 looking rifle is apparently an evil "assault weapon" which would make people shit their britches if I had it on a campus, but the campus police have what the media is calling a "patrol rifle" and it's Okeedokee! Perfect.
Most of the students seem cool with the idea of campus police being better armed, and some can't wait to lick their boots. Comments like: "Wow that's a really big gun" and "I feel safer with them" make me queazy.
Check out the video that is with this story. That would be an AK-47 or an AK semi-automatic look-alike rifle at the begining with a mounted grenade launcher. When they speak of the rifle as the "same rifle used by Soldiers in Iraq" they show insurgents with automatic AK-47's, an RPG-7, and even a PKM light machine gun, a belt fed weapon, not US troops with genuine M4's.
They also throw in descriptive words like "high powered," which is interesting considering that the Fredericksburg natives could show the media a thing or two about what constitutes a "high powered" rifle.
In this article, only one of the campus police has any training with the rifle, and the associated picture has an M-forgery look alike rifle with an innocent little magazine attached. Neat! Nothing to see here folks!
Oh, they have to be trained on how to use them before they are deployed, and they are so that they have the same weapons as the Fredericksburg police. That would be these guys:
The city's police department already has 16 M4s, which are used only by its special equipment tactical team during raids and barricades, said police spokeswoman Natatia Bledsoe. The department expects to get six more M4 rifles soon for officers on patrol.
Great.
Good thing they're going to keep the not-M4's locked up! That will make them useless if hell does in fact freeze over and a gunman shoots up the campus. I'm not against police having the right tools for the job, but when they trade in their shotguns for suspect automatic rifles and they don't trust the <1% of the willing student body to carry a simple handgun for defense, then I have to raise the bullshit flag.
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