Reply #66: As a person familiar with LE and having been a Police chief..

[57_TomCat]

in my past, the cops are worried about bad guys having superior weapons. The MOST Feared weapon out there to cops is the sawed off pump shotgun. This is a regular sporting gun where a hacksaw knocks of the barrel to be even with the magazine tube and the shoulder stock is hacked off to make a simple hand grip. To make this conversion is to commit a felony by violating the 1934 National Firearms Act. Obviously the local criminals do not consider adding an additional felony as being a big deal if they want a big gun.

Police DO by and large have superior weaponry in most cases. The US Army sells FULL AUTO M16A1 rifles by the boatload for bottom dollar to local LE agencies. In addition a 12 gauge shotgun is a common accessory to most cop cars. Purchase of semi auto rifles of many designs are common as well as manual rifles in many cases. The point is these weapons are carried to provide the cops with "Superior" firepower to the bad guys, MOST of which do NOT carry rifles or long arms of any sort.

There are rare circumstances where they (the bad guys) do carry rifles and such but not so much as to justify the wholesale abrogation of individual rights to own these same weapons.

Of course this type of reasoned logic has no support from those that would wish a socialistic setting of prior restraint to push their private or public agendas.