“The thought of military grade weapons being given to the local police is madness” (Sgt. Rob Aponte quoted in Kachmar). GIving military grade weapons to local police is not something people think about daily. Most think if there is armored cars in their village would make their village safer, but is this really the case? According to the 1033 program, which was installed in 1997, more than 4.3 billion dollars of military gear has been given to local police across the nation senes 1997 (ingraham). In 2013 alone just about a billion dollars was given to local law enforcement agencies (ingraham).The Department of Defense is selling these weapons to local police, but they shouldn’t be selling military grade weapons to untrained police officers (Ingraham). Overall, selling military grade weapons to local police forces is dangerous, excessive, and unnecessary.
The military weapons given to police have already been causing harm and danger to civilians all over this great nation. From Ferguson to Baltimore police that are untrained have military grade weapons to stop civilians from rioting. The things that happened in these two cities were just the biggest incidents of the problem of having military guns in local police hands. The training that is required to use these weapons is two to three weeks (Army weapons qualification course).This training is made so not just anyone can use military grade weapons but the local police are using these weapons without training(Army weapons qualification course). The people in these town may not feel safe and they very well could be scared that the police are getting quicker ways to kill people. Even if the cops are getting this training, there is no way to know if we can trusted them.
The guns that are sold to the cops are not necessary for these cops to control the crime. The numbers are outstanding, in total there are 432 MRAP’s in the USA ( Apuzzo). In New york there are only 16 but that is on the low end compared to other states (Apuzzo). New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida all have more than 18 of these vehicles, which in total adds up to 196 (Apuzzo). Just under half of the USA’s MRAP’s are in six of the fifty states and Alaska doesn’t account for one MRAP (Apuzzo). In total there have been 320,781 military grade weapons given to the fifty states this included MRAP’s, aircraft, assault rifles, magazines, night vision gear, and other armored vehicles (Apuzzo). This information was posted in January of 2015 (Apuzzo). America is creating a second military on our own shores.
The military grade weapons have gone as far as high schools. In Virginia as police officers there to keep the peace the problem is that the police officer is carrying full automatic weapons and this isn’t the only high school in america with this problem(Knefel). Schools in california don’t just have police officers with guns in their schools, they also have training montages in there high schools(Knefel). These have trained military and police officers come in there scholl and practice real life situations while school is still going on(Kefeel). Innocent children should not be show these weapons or give them a chance for them to get shot by these weapons on accident.
Overall the weapons given to the police is unnecessary and very dangerous. People in america still want them so they can feel safe but these people are not actually safe these military grade given to untrained police is going to be one of the e bigger problems america will have to face. These weapons are dangerous, unnecessary, and excessive for police to use in the field of law enforcement.