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But I say stop spending! Both towns and schools. Kids were better educated before fancy schools and far too many administrative jobs took over. Rural towns don't need three playgrounds, two dog parks, lit sidewalks, and new police cars every other year. It's nuts. I simply can't agree to keep feeding these beasts. That said, I really don't know how to stop it, though. They don't listen to us.
Who are these folks who constantly vote for "new" things. Year after year. Expensive stuff too.
My little rural hick town had a nice brick 2 story 2 garage door fire station. Built in the 1940's or 1950's. Town also had a one door satellite fire house on other side of town.
Then some decided the town needed a new bigger fire station. Four big garage doors. With fancy amenities such as larger kitchen, exercise room, conference room, and on and on. Another 20 year bond issue (taxes).
The old brink fire station was torn down. Made into a parking lot. The satellite fire station is closed and rotting away.
We have all sorts of new police cars. One is a pickup truck. One is an unmarked patrol car. A bunch of SUV's. Each vehicle has a fully automatic military M-16 attached to ceiling inside vehicle.
Do we really want or need our local Barney Fife - using a fully automatic military M-16 for the virtual little crime in this small rural hick town ?
Why do these smaller New Hampshire towns want a new town hall, new fire stations, new police stations, new DPW buildings, new schools, new recreation complexes, new fire trucks, new police cars, and on and on.
My hometown was like that, but started building about 35 years ago. To be honest they had outgrown their likely identical except for wood construction fire station/police station and needed something new. Ever since then, it has been a parade of new vehicles, new buildings, and other modifications. Who is voting for them? Where I am from, it is likely the wealthier summer people with houses/a will to attend town meetings, and those wealthier folks who have moved there later in life. The locals are getting priced out of town.
*(not for you, just in general)never pass up an opportunity to vote or attend a town meeting.
As far as the "M16"s go, if they are indeed M16s, that is one of the few fiscally conscious purchases an agency can make. They are essentially free loaners of 70 era's firearms from some deep dark military storage. Cops need long guns from time to time, rifles are exponentially more versatile than shotguns, and it is hard to beat "free". This is along the lines of the programs that brought MaxxPros, RGs, or similiar armor to all sorts of out of the way low threat places. Some high threat places too.
Now if they are fully auto "M16s", that is where the fiscal consciousness ends. The auto M16 variants are M16s, M16A1s, and M16A3s. They can be fired in semi automatic(single pull, single shot), or automatic. M16A2 and M16A4 are semi and three round burst only. The M16 and M16A1 which are commonly surplused fire a lighter bullet. It is only until you get to the semi/burst M16A4 that you have the ability to mount optics without a bulky gooseneck type mount. Iron sights are just fine in most cases, but optics(particularly those that are free through the same program) are much better. Now if the agency wants to make the rifles more ergonomic, they can replace the upper receiver and mount optics to that. It costs money-maybe about $150-200 for a reputable brand railed stripped upper. We are still cheaper than agency purchase of rifles, and even if they went strict iron sights-any quality long gun is better than none.
While they rifles are free, it can cause drama(mild example example your post). It is often easier to just agency purchase new semi auto rifles for the entire organization(budget item) or provide a list of models to allow individual officers to purchase off the shelf-passes the cost to the employee.
**Not aimed at you, but I put "M16" in quotes, because a vast majority of people do not know what an M16 is. Reading some of your posts in the past, you are likely correct in your identification. They often mistake plain old vanilla semi auto AR variants for full auto M16s. I came across a 70 era air force vet on another page that seemed to take the "journalist guide to firearm identification" as gospel.
***Not here, nor there, or even a topic for this thread-I am not a fan of any government agency having access to weapons that regular Americans are made to jump through hoops for with additional costs such as tax stamps and asking permission for full auto firearms.
The State Police SWAT Team. AND. The regional SWAT Teams.
These SWAT Teams are additionally trained.
There is no need for each regular ordinary Barney Fife to have a military M16. For any incident that requires the military M16 - the locals can call one or both of the SWAT Teams.
Good luck with that response time--when seconds and minutes count...the help is over an hour away.
Cops in a modern setting need access to long guns. It is more than just for bozos holding up a bank. The AR platform is one of the most versatile, most reliable, least expensive, and easiest trained rifle out there.
The M16, if it is an M16, is essentially free. It's just a rifle. Just because it has the capability to fire in full auto does not mean the user will do so. I would be willing to bet that any agency in the same boat prohibits firing in full auto.
Odd that in a thread about high taxes, you are advocating to remove a potentially free resource.
I don't begrudge the PD their M-16, as long as they feel the same about "civilian" ownership
Also considering that the only time my town's PD has fired a shot this century is putting roadside deer out of their misery, and for that I'd prefer they have an AR-style rifle (set to semi, obviously!)
Quote:
Originally Posted by abnfdc
My hometown was like that, but started building about 35 years ago. To be honest they had outgrown their likely identical except for wood construction fire station/police station and needed something new. Ever since then, it has been a parade of new vehicles, new buildings, and other modifications. Who is voting for them? Where I am from, it is likely the wealthier summer people with houses/a will to attend town meetings, and those wealthier folks who have moved there later in life. The locals are getting priced out of town.
Makes me glad that my town doesn't have a lot of "summer people" and the residents vote down the "new fire station" ballot item every year.
Someone misses the point. For rural New Hampshire.
Oh no. Exactly the opposite.
If this was anything but a rural northern New England backwater, I would be recommending a more capable rifle such as carbine length DD, BCM, or LMT rifles with either 4x ACOGs or a good 1X CCO such as Aimpoints. Likely leaning towards the latter versus the former. A light would be required. We're talking about $2K to set up.
IF, your cops picked up "M16s", your local cops settled on the cheap option-40ish year old musket length, limited bullet weight capability, no optic capibility, rattle trap rifles. While they are perfectly serviceable and checks a "long gun" block, they are certainly ideal for anything that involves houses, or getting in/out of vehicles. Rule #1 about needing a gun, is having one-they checked that block.
What started as a mild drama seems to be your major hang up with the deal. "full auto military weapons". None of this takes into account that there are three positions on the selector switch and if they are M16s, your cops did you a favor by not spending much money.
So question-are they M16s? Which variant and how did they source? It had to be surplus as nobody is really making them anymore and Colt or FN would not spin up the plant for backwoods New England small agency. If it really is an M16, you can look at your town's cop shop budget to see how much they spent on this purchase-you can likely find out how they chose to go the route they did.
Makes me glad that my town doesn't have a lot of "summer people" and the residents vote down the "new fire station" ballot item every year.
Before I left town to play Army, we would go from <1500 year round to almost 15K in the summer. Many of them had summer homes and would vote locally. It got nuts.
But isn’t there a residency requirement to vote? Or do they just register everything new New Hampshire so it looks like they live there? Forgive me, I’m still working on house number one. I just summer there, where I live.
The discussions about current use and police and fire budgets are not the major stress factors of the tax structure affecting property taxes. It is education. The old model doesn't work for a modern world yet the current model in some ways is actually worse for many students because, unlike the past, it offers little for the student who is not college bound. Additionally, far too many students go to college pursuing programs that do not provide them with marketable skills to become productive, self-sufficient and contributing adults. The bloated college and university system adds an additional layer of costs which ultimately falls upon tax payers to subsidize.
In today's world, there are many opportunities to attain specified knowledge and skills without going to a 4-year college. Schools should not be marketing arms of the college system. Schools could partner with local companies to offer students exposure to skills that are more on-the-job based. This is especially true for trade, manufacturing, and other jobs that work well with an apprentice-type arrangement. Thoughtful webcasts, seminars, and shared group-learning topics (think global Zoom connections) could be utilized to give students more specialized experiences. All of the above offer tremendous opportunities in terms of flexibility, ability to adapt to rapid change, and significant structural cost savings. This would allow a rural town to have access to many of the same opportunities as many of the current communities touting the best schools (and highest taxes). COVID19 has shown many employers that they can restructure their workforce and still meet the requirements of operating their organization. Schools are different in that students do need a place to socially interact as a critical component of their development. However, the social interactions don't necessarily have to take place for everyone, in the same building, at the same time, for a quality learning experience to take place.
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I don't begrudge the PD their M-16, as long as they feel the same about "civilian" ownership
