When only police have guns

I saw a comment recently about how well trained police are in the handling and the use of guns. What a joke. Come on. The news is full of stories about cops how miss handle and misuse guns.

Here's one story. A SWAT team from North Carolina was driving through Memphis. I don't know where they were coming from or going to, I guess one of those national SWAT team competitions that police agencies have from time to time. They stopped in Memphis for some barbeque, and some one stole some machine guns, pistols and shotguns. SWAT teams are supposed to be the elite when it comes to how to handle and store weapons. I don't know why we let out of state cops run around crossing state lines for recreation with machine guns there's not much point in gun control when it's that easy to steal guns from cops.

Memphis police were looking Monday night for the thieves who stole seven weapons from a North Carolina SWAT team van parked in South Memphis.

Members of the SWAT team based in Raleigh, N.C., were eating at Interstate Bar-B-Que, 2265 S. Third, about 3:30 p.m. Monday when they realized their van had been broken into, said Lt. Jerry Gwyn of Memphis felony response.

Taken were three machine guns, two semi-automatic handguns, and two 12-gauge shot guns, Gwyn said.

The Memphis police put a couple hundred cops on the case to recover the guns, and with the help of a parking lot video and a woman who called in, they managed to recover the guns. But it did take a couple hundred cops to get the guns back. I wonder if Memphis is going to send the Raleigh PD a bill (can you say Barney Fife?)

Memphis police got some lucky breaks in running down a gang of thieves and the small arsenal they stole from a SWAT van.

Tuesday afternoon, while hundreds of Memphis police scoured the streets, officer Ken Hailey got a call from a woman in his precinct who told him where to find one of the assault rifles.

It's not the first time it's happened in Memphis.

Upon hearing of the theft, Police Director Larry Godwin put together a team that had worked on a similar theft in 1997, when an FBI SWAT van was stolen with sophisticated weapons, including grenade launchers. Those weapons were recovered and the suspects charged inside of three days.

Is there something about Memphis? Or is it just that SWAT teams tend to be especially careless with guns?