edited to add quote
Who drives armored cars? People who expect gun-fire. Usually people with some fire-power of their own. -Burn Notice
But this though... oh no.
A single guy with a pistol, in an area they could have evacuated, who would have inevitably tired himself out after standing off for the best part of a day, daring to face off against the almighty police force? Nah, you gotta go full Michael Bay on that shit. Bring out the armoured cars, explosives, tear gas...
There's literally no rational justification for this. The actual soldiers out in the middle east know better restraint than to go nuclear at the first chance. And they're dealing with people packing a lot more heat than this guy with his belts and a pistol.
In most states you can purchase one, some states (CA, NY,CT) have banned them.
"Assault weapons" is a meaningless phrase.
The few that are out there are collectors items costing upwards of $20,000.
So while it’s tecnichally true that if you live in a state where they have not been banned outright you can legally buy a fully automatic assault rifle in the US, they are extremely rare and expensive.
People who buy them don't go on shooting sprees.
this is the problem: police aren't soldiers but have military-grade equipment.
They could have just parked the APC out front and waited a bit.
No need to crash it through the front door.
I've never been shot at, but I suspect there is probably a very aggressive response that humans have to be shot at. A response serves well in most situations, not so much in this one.
I'd love to see more training for the police officers to help in situations, but I don't see tax payers wanting to pay for it.
My outrage really isn't at the police officers actions, but I understand being outraged about it. My outrage is at the courts. Although I do understand it appears this gentleman may have selected the wrong court.
I don’t think it’s more training they need, but different training (so rather than more money, it’s a matter of spending the money they already have differently).
A whole industry has sprung up of ex-military personnel and LEOs providing training which isn’t far off the sort of thing you’d get for a tour of Afghanistan; unsurprisingly when you train and equip people as if they’re going to a war zone they then act and use that equipment as if they’re in a war zone.