Montana Highway Patrol Downgrades It's Firepower

Crack, crack, crack.

"Three Montana Highway Patrol troopers, firing from the prone position, sent 15 rounds from their new rifles downrange in quick succession recently.

The .223 caliber bullets punched easily through the plywood and paper targets, kicking up clods of dirt from the berm behind the range at Glacier Park International Airport.

After officers from the sixth district °ª which covers Flathead, Lake, and Lincoln counties °ª qualify with the new weapon, every trooper in Montana will be riding shotgun with a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle.

°°They°¯re just all-around more versatile for our day and age,°± Trooper Jerril Ren, one of the patrol°¯s firearms instructors, said of the AR-15. °°For the changing times, I think it°¯s just more appropriate.°±

The AR-15s are replacing the patrol°¯s old M-14 rifles, which normally are carried in a patrol car°¯s trunk. After qualification, troopers will be required to carry their assault rifles mounted between the front seats of their vehicles.

°°For the most part, they°¯re trying to make them more readily available to the officer,°± said Ren, noting that a change in common tactical situations necessitated a different type of firepower.

Until authorities introduced the now-mandatory AR-15, it was optional for troopers to carry the M-14 °ª a .308-caliber rifle that saw service in the U.S. Army from the late 1950s until the beginning of the Vietnam War.

The AR-15 is smaller, lightweight, collapsible, more versatile and better suited to a trooper°¯s needs, Ren said. Most officer-involved shootings occur at close range, and the M-14 tends to punch right through walls and vehicles, he added."

Ah, but once again where does one begin in debunking the absolutely nonsensical utterings of under-informed, un-educated, mama's boys who day after day seem to vie for the title of CHAMPION DOLT. The M-14 has approximately the SAME cyclic rate of fire as the AR's they are replacing it with, and much as the Box O' Truth proprietor, LE doesn't appear to understand that there are VARIOUS types of ammunitions for VARIOUS jobs and platforms. If your FMJ .308 rounds are inappropriate, then by all means go to a different cartridge before spending thousands of dollars for a far less effective bullet. It isn't as if we've seen case upon case of over-penetration when using the .308, but when shooting those old wrecked cars they practice upon it scares the hell out of most when coming to the conclusion that they've just been shooting a real long arm.

There are but two reasons they are switching to poodle shooters, and two reasons only. TACTICOOL is one. LIGHTER WEIGHT for the pencil neckers who don't like those nasty old heavy combat rifles is the other. If the weapon is too big for you then perhaps you need search for a different line of work before begging for Mr. & Mrs. Taxpayer to buy some new toys.

And as many of you are probably wondering as well, precisely what in the hell does this whinger mean by "changing times"?

They SHOULD have been around when the bad guys used Tommy Guns.