At the KCPD gun range....

Follow a two-lane road just off I-70 and Manchester Trafficway for a few miles and you’ll pass the regular Missouri roadside sights: an old, rickety railroad trellis, treadless tires and trash ditched on the side of the road, butterflies and wasps buzzing in the grasses – and a bunch of Kansas City, Missouri police officers blowing some paper targets into oblivion.
Yesterday afternoon, Sergeant Ward Smith, the Firearms Training Section Supervisor, instructed 20 KCPD officers as they fired shots from their new AR-15 semiautomatic rifles at targets 50 yards away. While I was there, the cops practiced firing from a prone position, laying in the grass like snipers. I asked one how it was going. He replied, “It’s hot.”
The cops – twenty out of 120 that will be trained in the new gun by the end of the summer – had to spend their own $1000 to buy the rifle if they wanted one. But I got to try one out for free.
I’m not gonna lie. My heart was pounding when Smith handed over the AR-15 and told me to aim the crosshairs at a target 25 yards away. Rather than a paper X, my target was a metal bust of a man’s head and shoulders that looked tiny compared to the heavy, black gunmetal in my hands. My first shot made a puff in the dirt at the same time as the smell of gunpowder hit my nose. My second shot made that little metal bust sway back and forth with the impact. Even with ear protection on, it sounded as though a cherry bomb went off next to my head.
I couldn’t have been more excited if I had knocked an armed insurgent off a galloping goat at 300 yards. Which is exactly what members of our armed forces are doing with guns very similar to the cops’ new AR-15s. In fact, some officers had to wait while their guns were on backorder as manufacturers sent parts overseas (the upper and lower receivers, for those who know what the hell that means). The bullets are also military-grade and were backordered until recently from Shore Galleries Inc. in Lincolnwood, Illinois.
Smith was quick to correct the misconception that the department approved the AR-15 for its officers in order to match the firepower of the average 16-year-old drug dealer on the street.
“I don’t want it characterized as an arms race with the criminal element,” Smith told me. “Truth be told, you can get an AK or SKS on the street for $100. With these guns we are addressing that in a secondary way.”
The AR-15s will be useful for a situation when an officer doesn’t want to get as close to an armed suspect as he or she would have to be to use a handgun, but requires more precision than the department-issue shotgun could provide. The shotgun is primarily brought out for its psychological impact, Smith says, but the trigger is rarely pulled. “People understand that everything in front of it is going to disintegrate and disappear.”
Officers are limited to 20- to 30-round clips. While bigger ones are available, Smith says, “Over 30 doesn’t sent the right message.” The gun will be stored in a locked case in the truck of an officer’s car unless it’s in use. “You’re not there to look cool with it,” Smith says. “It’s equipment. It’s like getting issued a new Crown Vic. You don’t go driving around town doing 120 (miles per hour) just because you can.”
Hopefully the KCPD’s officers will use their new toys responsibly. Because if I could hit a target with one, anyone can.