World: LA police armed with military firepower

Thursday 18 September 1997 00:02 BST

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The next time LA police face a bank robber wielding an assault rifle they will no longer have to race to a nearby gun shop: the LAPD has acquired 600 military surplus M-16s.

In the latest escalation of gun law in America the M-16s will be carried in selected patrol cars. This February, in scene carried live on television, two bank robbers armed with M-16 and AK-47 style rifles poured a fusillade of bullets at LAPD officers armed with handguns and shotguns. Officers had to requisition rifles from a store. "Never again do I want to see LAPD officers outgunned," said Governor Pete Wilson.

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