Monday, September 01, 2008

Repeat after me

The police aren't the Army:
The Richland County (S.C.) Sheriff's Department has acquired an armored personnel carrier complete with a turret-mounted .50-caliber belt-fed machine gun for its Special Response Team.
h/t: Radley Balko

Seriously? If you wanna shoot a Ma Deuce, your local recruiter will be more than happy to hook you up. Unfortunately though, that will require going up against people a little more intimidating than elderly women.

Really though, like Radley says this is getting ridiculous. .50 BMG is an anti-material round with an energy between 10,000 and 13,000 foot pounds. I can understand its limited use by agencies such as the Coast Guard to immobilize boats and as one of many tools for big city police snipers (NYPD, LAPD, etc.) However, what a police force in a city of 116,000 people needs a belt fed machine gun firing this round for is beyond me.