donnay
10-06-2014, 08:02 PM
Oct 6, 1:06 PM EDT
Even an Ozarks coroner gets surplus military guns
By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN
Associated Press
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- Doug Wortham used a Defense Department giveaway program for law enforcement to stock his office with an assault rifle, a handgun and a Humvee - even though the people in his custody are in no condition to put up a fight.
They're dead.
Wortham is the Sharp County, Arkansas, coroner. He says the Humvee helps him navigate the rugged terrain of the Ozarks foothills, but he struggled to explain why he needs the surplus military weapons he acquired more than two years ago.
"I just wanted to protect myself," he said.
His office isn't the only government agency with limited policing powers and a questionable need for high-powered weaponry to take advantage of the program. While most of the surplus weapons go to municipal police departments and county sheriffs, an Associated Press review shows that a diverse array of other state and local agencies also have been scooping up guns and other tactical equipment no longer needed by the military.
Military-grade weapons have gone to government agencies that enforce gaming laws at Kansas tribal casinos and weigh 18-wheelers in Mississippi, to the Wyoming Livestock Board and the Cumberland County Alcoholic Beverage Control Board in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Other military surplus items have been bestowed on an animal control department in Cullman County, Alabama; a harbormaster in Dartmouth, Massachusetts; and the California Assembly's Sergeant-at-Arms.
The Pentagon's 1033 Program has been controversial; the White House ordered a review of it and similar programs in August after a deadly police shooting in Ferguson, Missouri, led to clashes between protesters and officers decked out in combat gear.
Under the 1033 Program, thousands of law-enforcement agencies have acquired hundreds of millions of dollars in weapons and other military castoffs. Among them were dozens of fire departments, district attorneys, prisons, parks departments and wildlife agencies that were eligible to join the program because they have officers or investigators with arrest powers.
Continued... (http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MILITARY_SURPLUS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT)
Even an Ozarks coroner gets surplus military guns
By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN
Associated Press
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- Doug Wortham used a Defense Department giveaway program for law enforcement to stock his office with an assault rifle, a handgun and a Humvee - even though the people in his custody are in no condition to put up a fight.
They're dead.
Wortham is the Sharp County, Arkansas, coroner. He says the Humvee helps him navigate the rugged terrain of the Ozarks foothills, but he struggled to explain why he needs the surplus military weapons he acquired more than two years ago.
"I just wanted to protect myself," he said.
His office isn't the only government agency with limited policing powers and a questionable need for high-powered weaponry to take advantage of the program. While most of the surplus weapons go to municipal police departments and county sheriffs, an Associated Press review shows that a diverse array of other state and local agencies also have been scooping up guns and other tactical equipment no longer needed by the military.
Military-grade weapons have gone to government agencies that enforce gaming laws at Kansas tribal casinos and weigh 18-wheelers in Mississippi, to the Wyoming Livestock Board and the Cumberland County Alcoholic Beverage Control Board in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Other military surplus items have been bestowed on an animal control department in Cullman County, Alabama; a harbormaster in Dartmouth, Massachusetts; and the California Assembly's Sergeant-at-Arms.
The Pentagon's 1033 Program has been controversial; the White House ordered a review of it and similar programs in August after a deadly police shooting in Ferguson, Missouri, led to clashes between protesters and officers decked out in combat gear.
Under the 1033 Program, thousands of law-enforcement agencies have acquired hundreds of millions of dollars in weapons and other military castoffs. Among them were dozens of fire departments, district attorneys, prisons, parks departments and wildlife agencies that were eligible to join the program because they have officers or investigators with arrest powers.
Continued... (http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MILITARY_SURPLUS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT)