Government programs, good and bad

The Good, from Pakistan(of all places):
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) — The government of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province will provide 30,000 rifles to the residents of rural areas in a bid to counter Taliban militants, a statement said Sunday.

The troubled province is rife with Taliban and Al-Qaeda extremists who have been regularly carrying out attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Under the "Village Defence Rifle" programme, chief minister Ameer Haider Hoti has ordered the distribution of rifles among "peaceful individuals and organised groups," a statement issued by Hoti's office said.
"Hey, Tali-boy, I got yer tribute right here" as he pats the stock...

The Bad, from right here in the US:
The ongoing militarization of the police was a major segment of the SHOT Show, with huge floor space dedicated to weapons and gear the public cannot get. Gnarly looking tough hombres with rippling muscles bulging in skin tight black tactical t-shirts roamed around booths like the tremendous Blackwater recruitment center and outfits selling gear to make cops look like spacemen.
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I especially liked the roof-turret mounted, bullet-proof-camera equipped, fully remote controlled, drum fed, suppressed machine gun with 360-degree sweep and elevation control now available for law enforcement vehicles.

Fully mechanized roof-mounted machine gun for police vehicles.
It rotates, elevates and exterminates.
Think about this; this crap is being produced and sold to law enforcement agencies. You know, the guys who're supposed to 'protect and serve', who're supposed to be 'peace officers'? Far too many of whom have developed a bad habit of kicking doors and aiming at people, and shooting their dog, without bothering with any of that messy 'investigating' stuff first. And who then bitch because people in the community don't treat them like Officer Friendly, and also won't bend over when someone with a badge passes by.

On the flight home, I read an inside-the-industry article by Massad Ayoob (if you don't know this fountain of knowledge just google him, or get one of his books on our website). He was telling dealers how to handle customers who want to buy LEO-only ammunition. It seems some manufacturers are making good ammo that only law enforcement officers can buy. It's not law, it's just company policy, and dealers can offer roughly equivalent rounds to their clients.
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What gives with that? You mean police can get regular pistol ammo that we can't? We don't face the same bad guys? What, does the stuff kill an attacker more dead than a consumer round? Is it safer, more effective, higher energy, more impact, less overpenetration, what? It's all about political correctness, and making "officials" feel more special than the average person. If it's safe enough or good enough for the police, it's certainly safe enough and good enough for the public. But what do I know, I'm a moderate.
One of the standard pieces of advice in a lot of CCW classes is 'find out what ammo the local police/sheriff's office/whoever uses, and use it if it works well in your gun', both because you can be fairly sure it's good stuff and because if some prosecutor wanting to hang you starts making nasty comments about your 'super-lethal ammo' you can point out that Sheriff John issues the same stuff, and is he saying the Sheriff wants his deputies to kill people at random? This 'LE Only ' ammo business... just wonderful. "We're special, and we have to have special ammo."

Yes, I am in a bad mood about this crap. It's like the sheriff somewhere back east who got a friggin' APC with a roof-mounted M2 machine gun for their 'tactical team'. Absolute bullshit.

Something like 20 or 25 years ago the OK Highway Patrol wound up being given a APC(no automatic weapon) for reason I can't remember. I was told they kept it around for a few years, using it once in some really bad weather, before getting rid of it. The things have to be trailered around unless you want to damage the streets, maintenance if you actually use them is NOT cheap, and, terrorist fantasies aside, there's damn little you can do with them. But that SO has one with a damned .50 caliber machine gun on top. I always wondered if the county has to pay for the maintenance or if Homeland Security was covering that; if it's the county, I wonder if the people know how much that piece of crap is costing them?