For a nation that’s about as rabidly anti-gun as the country that sent convicts to colonize her, Australia sure has a lot of police handguns. abc.net.au reports that “3,000 new .40 calibre Smith and Wesson M&P pistols from the United States were checked and cleared by Customs last week. Another 8,000 are on order and will arrive in the next six months . . . Acting Superintendent Terry Jackson said the $25.6 million roll-out of the new guns was one of the most significant projects undertaken by Victoria Police. All up, more than 10,000 weapons will be purchased at a cost of $7 million.” Huh. I’m no math whizz, but I reckon eight plus three equals eleven. The Smiths are set to replace Ye Olde .38 revolver. Of course, that’s a big change. So the Vic police will get plenty of training on how to use their new American-made weapon . . .
Officers will be put through a four-day training course beginning in December including familiarisation, cleaning and safety.
Then they will get another day of training in tactical communication, to learn about conflict resolution and mental illness.
PC PCs with M&Ps. How great is that?
How many cops do they have in Victoria, cuz 11,000 seems like a lot of guns (not that I'd ever tell someone how many guns they could have). Well as long as the police are well armed crime should drop like a stone… Right?
Victoria State has over 5 million people for what it's worth.
$633 doesn't seem like a very good discount for such a large buy.
MSRP is $719 US Dollars. But most large retailers in the US sell them for $649. NIB ranges from $500 to $600 on the web with a median of $579. So, yeah. If that is what they paid, then someone got a "bonus" for doing the deal. $50 each for shipping and handling is a bit much.
The article isn’t using US dollars.
I think the Australian dollar is about 75 cents US so yea it could be a big discount makes sense and really glad to see them arm up hope some of these get to Sydney