Jason X – the M4 may not be as reliable as an AK, but in practice you do not need to shoot 5,000 rounds without cleaning. “M4′s are unreliable” is, in that sense, just a myth. Furthermore, any 9mm round out of an MP5 (short of frangible ammunition) will have MORE overpenetration in cars and residential building materials than the 5.56mm rounds.
Big City Boy – the urban populations in general haven’t “outgrown defending themselves”, they’ve “failed to be intolerant of thugs and abdicated their own responsibility to protect themselves”. The police simply cannot be there 24/7 to protect you – but you know what? Law enforcement is even more sparse outside urban centers, and we certainly have no crime problem here.
Crime on that scale can only exist where it is tolerated by the population, be it through fear, laziness, or a misguided reliance on police who give 110% but cant hold your hand every minute.
As for the M4′s in general… I think there are a lot of misconceptions and misunderstandings about M4/AR-15 type rifles.
First off, are we talking REAL assualt rifles, i.e, safe-semi-auto on the selector switch, or just plain semi-auto (one trigger pull, one shot) AR-15′s? These days having an AR as a patrol rifle in the trunk or in a rack is just plain normal; they are far, far more accurate than a shotgun and have much less overpenetration than 00 buck, 12ga slugs, or 9mm rounds out of carbines (or handguns for that matter). 5.56mm/.223 rounds simply do not behave the same way as full sized .30 cal rifle bullets.
AR-15′s are also a lot easier to shoot for smaller and/or female officers and easier and cheaper to maintain than a bunch of creaky old German submachineguns. For that matter, these rifles would certainly be employed on single shot (semi); Even in the military, use of full auto in an M4/M16 is rare. There is simply little or no place for full auto rifle fire even in SWAT team usage, let alone street patrol. Similarly, MP5′s or other submachineguns are not appropriate for most street patrol officers because the time and money to train them to use them properly simply is not there. (plus, again, overpenetration, etc.)
ic :
This isn’t at all a knock on you, but,
Policemen in cities with the common sense to issue patrol rifles in their cruiser trunks (which is a lot of them) shoot pistol-toting gang bangers all the time, and I don’t recall ever hearing any sort of outcry about it. There is no such thing as “disparity of force” when you’re already trying to shoot them. Simple fact of the matter is, if you KNOW you’re going to get into a gunfight, choosing to bring a pistol instead of a rifle is mind-bogglingly stupid. This is one of those issues where soccer moms, yuppies, and other assorted people who have no idea what they’re talking about need to sit down, shut up, and let the adults do their jobs.
