1 That does look like the battering arms I've seen on some TV shows.  One or two guys smash it onto the door knob - on most residential doors that will get you in with just one or two hits.

2 Yup, that looks like a classic battering ram.  That looks like a one man version with the handles turned away from us.

3 I can just make out what looks like a handle just above his shoulder, behind his neck. And I noticed that the officer in front is carrying a sledge hammer…which leaves me with one small question. If I were one of those officers carrying a heavy implement, would it be wrong for me to want at least one of those guys carrying guns to be, oh I don't know, in front of me?

4 All I can say, looking at that picture, is that it's a good thing our police aren't becoming militarized.

5 it's a good thing our police aren't becoming militarized.

Because it'd be so much better to have them walk into a potential shooting gallery completely unprotected, right?

6 That's on a college campus "gun free zone". Everybody else there is, pardon me, an unarmed, defenseless, sitting duck in a target gallery; why not the cops?

These guys aren't even wearing blues. They're not even trying not to look like the military.

7 It's a bad, bad thing when the cops get to play soldier, and the subjects aren't allowed to carry.

Sorry. No sympathy from here.

[And sorry about the double post -- I didn't think of how I wanted to say this until after pressing Post.]

8 Perhaps I'm a touch sensitive tonight, Refugee, since the Duck U Bookstore is on a college campus and I received e-mails from both the home office and Duck U reminding us what we should do in the case of an emergency like this. 

But, and I say this with all due respect, if there was a shooter at my school, if the police wanted to show up in M1A1s, wearing full camo gear and packing Barrett "light fifties", I'd be more than happy to have them.

Out of deference to Steven, I'll shut up now.

9 I think I'm going to close this before it turns into a bitter argument.