Do Chicago Police Need Assault Rifles?

By Prescott Carlson in News on Apr 27, 2008 1:12PM

After the rash of gun violence last weekend including one incident where police got into a shoot out with a man brandishing an AK-47, the staunchly anti-gun Mayor Daley yesterday announced that he is supporting Superintendent Weis' suggestion to arm the city's 13,000 police officers with assault rifles of their own:

"Many times [the police are] outgunned, to be very frank," Daley said at an event in the Englewood neighborhood. "When they come to a scene, someone has a semi-fully-automatic weapon, and you have a little pistol, uh, good luck."

The Chicago SWAT teams and the Illinois State Police already carry the weapons, and Daley also argued that other city police forces around the country carry assault rifles.

No word on a time line to replace the city's squad cars with tanks. [Trib]

Photo by swanksalot