I see 205 of "Launcher, Grenade" followed by only 1 of "Laundry, Cleaner"
WTF are police going to do with grenade launchers?! (Do they have 155 mm artillery too? :-) )
Are those for tear gas? I just don't believe even US gangs are doing Taliban style insurrections or Intifadas?
(Being Swedish with our really open borders for refugees from the Middle East, I should just wait a few years and find out why police need heavy weaponry? :-) :-( )
Edit: Other commenters seem to say (a) These really aren't needed by police, (b) there are lots of surplus weapons from Iraq/Afghanistan. Why aren't those extra weapons just sold/donated to countries which need them? Like most neighbors of Russia, they ought to be starting with big defense investments right now (except for the complete crazies, see Swedish politicians.)
Almost definitely. There are a variety of less than lethal projectiles that can be fired from a 40mm grenade launcher. Everything from tear gas canisters to rubber projectiles.
Even the most overzealous SWAT team wouldn't use a grenade launcher with real fragmentation grenades in a populated area. Fragmentation grenades kill by producing shrapnel, which is just too indiscriminate for police use.
That being said, I do remember a story about a SWAT team attempting to drop a homemade bomb out of a helicopter, so you can't be 100% sure.
Edit: Found a link to the police helicopter bombing story. The improvised bomb caused a fire that spread to 50 or 60 other houses. http://www.nytimes.com/1985/05/14/us/police-drop-bomb-on-rad...