Police force equips all rifles with suppressors citing safety reasons

[vinnyg101]

Police force equips all rifles with suppressors citing safety reasons


Spokane officers will soon see their patrol rifles outfitted with Gemtech suppressors to help protect hearing when used in emergencies, The Spokesman-Review reported.

The move came to insulate the city against legal costs of worker’s compensation claims and potential lawsuits from bystanders who may suffer permanent damage to their hearing if the rifles are used. Five officers in recent years have filed claims with the Washington Department of Labor and Industries for hearing loss as a result of gunfire.

“Probably the best way to say it, beyond suppressors, is this is an OSHA-approved noise reduction device,” Lt. Rob Boothe, range master and lead firearms instructor for the department, told the Review.

Last month the City Council signed off on the $115,000 budget request to purchase 181 Gemtech Patrolman suppressors for the agency’s AR-15 rifles. While the agency’s tactical team has used suppressors for several years, the new policy will equip patrol rifles used by the city’s rank and file officers.

“If an officer deploys their patrol rifle in an interior location such as a house, school, or a mall, the officer and the public around the officer can suffer catastrophic and irreversible hearing damage,” says the background of the proposal submitted to the Council. “Placing a sound and pressure reduction device, more commonly known as a suppressor, on the rifles will bring the volume and pressure of the rifle to OSHA-approved safe sound levels without adding significant weight or length to the rifle platform.”

Gun rights leaders in the state welcomed the news but pointed out the same concerns that lead Spokane to adopt the devices are much the same as for civilian users — to preserve hearing.

“This is exactly why gun owners want to own and use them,” Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Redmond-based Second Amendment Foundation, told Guns.com. “It is time to get rid of all the excessive rules, regulations and outrageous federal tax on them.”

Besides the suppressors, the agency’s Strategic Plan outlines other technology acquisitions including the purchase of 20 40mm less-lethal impact munitions launchers and that all officers receive rifle-fire rated plate carriers, as well as medical kits with tourniquets and blood clotting supplies in each vehicle.



guns.com/2017/10/12/police-force-equips-all-rifles-with-suppressors-citing-safety-reasons/
Chris Eger10/12/2017

[Emptymag]

Hearing protection? That's just silly.

And now we have a whole police force that has been turned into assassins.

[Berncly]

It will be interesting to see how this affects the general debate.
Thanks for posting it.

OP link is wrong story.
Correct link: http://www.guns.com/2017/10/12/polic...afety-reasons/

[streaker69]

Now they can silently shoot dogs.

[GunLawyer001]

Wow, and I bet they also have access to those evil black semi-automatic assault weapons, whose only purpose (the snowflakes assure us) is to "murder as many people as possible in a short time". Is THAT something we want our police to do? And now, with evil silencers, according to Hillary the bullets will come out even more dangerous and nobody will know that they've been shot.

Seriously, making it hard to impossible to obtain suppressors is like outlawing helmets in football games.

[Berncly]

Wow, and I bet they also have access to those evil black semi-automatic assault weapons, whose only purpose (the snowflakes assure us) is to "murder as many people as possible in a short time".

As I understand it, when your evil black semi auto assault rifle is grasped by an officer of the crown, it is instantaneously transferred through time and space via a wormhole, and it emerges out of the other side as a "patrol rifle".

[Lexington]

As I understand it, when your evil black semi auto assault rifle is grasped by an officer of the crown, it is instantaneously transferred through time and space via a wormhole, and it emerges out of the other side as a "patrol rifle".

And the left loves and reveres the officer and his patrol rifle and says that's the only place for such weapons in a free society, until a minority is shot by a patrolman's handgun. Then officers need to be disarmed and they're all evil incarnate.

Must be hard, living a dichotomous existence all the time. I wonder if progressives have to eat more calories than the rest of us.

[R.A.D.]

OSHA does not "approve" any products

[Pag23]

Hmm. I wonder if I can get a doctors note that a suppressor would help minimize my hearing loss and deduct it on my flexible spending account as a medical expense...

[thebearpack]

It will be interesting to see how this affects the general debate.

It won't. "You have enough time at the range before shooting to put on ear protection but a police officer doesn't have time in an emergency to look for muffs."

This will change nothing for us regular peons.