New Jersey police armed to the hilt

"North Jersey police are stockpiling some of the most sophisticated tactical and assault weapons on the market, but some residents question the need for such firepower in sleepy suburban towns.

Nearly half the agencies in a Record survey of 44 police departments said they own tactical weapons or plan to purchase them in the near future. Most departments are buying semiautomatic guns capable of one to three shots per trigger pull, while a handful of departments have fully automatic weapons capable of firing 10 bullets a second. A few have military-grade M16s or urban rifles that can blast through body armor.

"You're not looking at major crime in these towns," said Eric Krasnov, a 26-year-old from Harrington Park who works in Tenafly.

Krasnov and his colleagues were surprised to learn that Tenafly, a town with fewer than 15,000 people and with just a handful of violent crimes in the last few years, has an emergency tactical unit armed with fully automatic submachine guns.

"Our taxpayer money is not going to good use for these automatic weapons," Krasnov said.

Police insist, however, that they must beef up their arsenals to keep pace with criminals and prepare for school shooters, terrorist attacks and other threats."

Now, I'd be a piss poor gunny if voicing complaint about anyone owning and using powerful firearms, and the police are no exception. Let them have whatever they want. Not that I enjoy paying for their hobbies, so perhaps they could start acquiring these oh-so-necessary weapons from their own pockets. We'd soon see how strongly they felt about beefing up their arsenals.

And, since run of the mill citizens face far more threats than do the police, by this logic the NJ cops should be all FOR protecting a citizens right to keep and bear modern arms. Last time I checked police stations weren't experiencing all that many burglaries...can't count their own guys and gals stealing from 'em, I mean outside criminals...cops weren't being stalked and robbed and raped and murdered...60 or so officers die every year, most from traffic accidents...so lets put the automatic weapon systems in the hands of those who ARE beset by criminals.

But the NJ police don't want you to own guns. They enforce some of the country's most draconian gun laws so I guess that its THEIR safety that's paramount and we the people can go suck eggs.

This of course makes them the enemy, now doesn't it.

The Founders were quite clear on the matter, and many of us still exalt the Constitution so it isn't if, but when we start kicking the rascals out.

There. Was I polite enough?