guest
October 13th, 1999, 11:03 AM
This from the Ranger's web site at:
http://www.geocities.com/~parkranger/news.htm
I don't know about you, but I feel safer . . .
Nick-BR
Park Rangers issued M-16 rifles
By Dave Mitchell
Point Reyes National Seashore has received seven or eight M-16 rifles from the Park Service but has yet to decide what to do with them.
That was the word this week from Chief Ranger Frank Dean, who said that while the M-16s look like the automatic rifles issued to the military, they have been converted into semi-automatics.
In other words, a ranger will have to pull the trigger for each bullet he fires instead of having his gun keep firing as long as its trigger remains depressed. "It is not a machine gun [in its converted form]," stressed Dean. It's more "like a .22."
The chief ranger noted rangers already carry .9mm pistols which are semi-automatic, but the "rifle has a longer range."
Dean said rangers at parks along the Mexican border have carried M-16s for years but that the Park Service recently decided to distribute the guns to all national parks.
For the moment, he said, "we've got them here, but they're locked away. We're in a go-slow mode. You don't just hand out a weapon like that without thinking it through."
Dean said he and National Seashore Supt. Don Neubacher will have to establish a policy for ranger use of the M-16s before issuing them. If the semi-automatics prove controversial, they will probably also be discussed by the Citizens Advisory Commission to the park, he added.
At the very least, he noted, any ranger who carries an M-16 will have to receive special training and will need a "locked gun mount inside the car."
When would a Point Reyes National Seashore ranger need an M-16? Dean responded by citing the case of a ranger who on Tuesday found men with a rifle practicing target-shooting in the park.
As it turned out, the men were under the mistaken assumption they were in "a back forty" somewhere, but the disconcerted ranger who confronted them was armed only with a pistol.
Another case when a M-16 might prove handy, he said, would be in dealing with people growing marijuana in the park. In that situation, "you never know what's going to happen," he added.
http://www.geocities.com/~parkranger/news.htm
I don't know about you, but I feel safer . . .
Nick-BR
Park Rangers issued M-16 rifles
By Dave Mitchell
Point Reyes National Seashore has received seven or eight M-16 rifles from the Park Service but has yet to decide what to do with them.
That was the word this week from Chief Ranger Frank Dean, who said that while the M-16s look like the automatic rifles issued to the military, they have been converted into semi-automatics.
In other words, a ranger will have to pull the trigger for each bullet he fires instead of having his gun keep firing as long as its trigger remains depressed. "It is not a machine gun [in its converted form]," stressed Dean. It's more "like a .22."
The chief ranger noted rangers already carry .9mm pistols which are semi-automatic, but the "rifle has a longer range."
Dean said rangers at parks along the Mexican border have carried M-16s for years but that the Park Service recently decided to distribute the guns to all national parks.
For the moment, he said, "we've got them here, but they're locked away. We're in a go-slow mode. You don't just hand out a weapon like that without thinking it through."
Dean said he and National Seashore Supt. Don Neubacher will have to establish a policy for ranger use of the M-16s before issuing them. If the semi-automatics prove controversial, they will probably also be discussed by the Citizens Advisory Commission to the park, he added.
At the very least, he noted, any ranger who carries an M-16 will have to receive special training and will need a "locked gun mount inside the car."
When would a Point Reyes National Seashore ranger need an M-16? Dean responded by citing the case of a ranger who on Tuesday found men with a rifle practicing target-shooting in the park.
As it turned out, the men were under the mistaken assumption they were in "a back forty" somewhere, but the disconcerted ranger who confronted them was armed only with a pistol.
Another case when a M-16 might prove handy, he said, would be in dealing with people growing marijuana in the park. In that situation, "you never know what's going to happen," he added.