After San Bernardino Massacre, Police Depts Ask For Their Military Gear Back

The first images of Wednesday’s mass shootings in San Bernardino, California showed uniformed law enforcement officers pulling up to the Inland Regional Center in fleets of Bearcats alongside swarms of ambulances. Police and special agents helped guide victims fleeing the scene of the massacre as emergency medical technicians provided emergency care to the wounded in the parking lot.

The fast and effective response to the shootings undoubtedly saved many lives, though suspects Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik managed to kill 14 and injure 21 before emergency personnel arrived on the scene. The use of military equipment and tactics was critical in this case: a rampage by two heavily armed individual who, as San Bernardino police chief Jarrod Berguan said, “came prepared to do what they did.”

Within hours, police officers, columnists and cable news pundits began pointing to the San Bernardino shooting as proof of why local law enforcement agencies require military gear and training. They argued that depriving law enforcement of equipment like armored personnel carriers in the post-Ferguson era endangers the lives of officers and civilians alike.