SWAT AR-15's full auto?

[sixtus]

I've never seen one, wanted to know if SWAT teams in CA actually use ARs with a full-auto setting.

[WDE91]

Its probably department by department

I know they can have class 3 stuff like suppressors so I would assume full auto is capable of being had

[alfred1222]

Some departments have class 3 stuff, an officer at Davis PD told me that they can get suppressors if they requisition them, but idk about full auto stuff. Personally I don't see why police forces would need full auto weapons, cause firing in full auto isn't accurate

[QuarterBoreGunner]

San Jose MERGE, Campbell SWAT, Santa Clara PD SRT, Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety SWAT, etc. *all* have select fire weapons; AR types and MP-5s exclusively as far as I know. Though back in the 90's Campbell PD's Chief had an SBR Steyr AUG for his on-duty use that converted to lefty use, but if I recall that was semi-auto only.

[mdib870]

had an uncle that worked for swat in stockton the mp5s and m4s were select fire

[TASK, LLC]

Select fire (full-auto capable) rifles- yes.

Use of full auto during tactical incidents- that's a different story.

[Mesa Defense]

I've never seen one, wanted to know if SWAT teams in CA actually use ARs with a full-auto setting.

Visually, on the exterior at a glance, you will notice very little difference from a standard AR config. One of the external differences is the third pin that holds the auto sear. And the receiver may have the FA marking for the selector, though some department guns, converted from semi lowers, may not have the FA or burst marked on the lower.

Yes, many departments SRT’s have MP5's, AR variant's and different types of 308 Semi's (SCARS’s, 91’s) with FA capability’s (agency owned). And yes of course supressors.

[PolishMike]

Yes they are but often they dont even use it.

I have seen CHP M16 Military buybacks that they just swap semi auto AR-15 FCG's in and leave the third hole empty.

[Ken Woodford]

I never was on our swat team but I think we had MP5s.

I do know in our armory we have quite a few full auto...a 92F full auto, Thompson 45 and a few others I can't remember but these are not used in the line of duty.

[Muscles Glasses]

I never was on our swat team but I think we had MP5s.

I do know in our armory we have quite a few full auto...a 92F full auto, Thompson 45 and a few others I can't remember but these are not used in the line of duty.

Why would there be a thompson in a police armory? I am assuming confiscated guns would be stored somewhere else so the only reason I could think of as to why it would be there is if its been there since the 40's... sorry for threadjacking

[5shot]

Why would there be a thompson in a police armory? I am assuming confiscated guns would be stored somewhere else so the only reason I could think of as to why it would be there is if its been there since the 40's... sorry for threadjacking

Back in the 50's & 60's the feds would give police departments military surplus weapons for "civil defense" purposes. Some were used, some just gathered dust in a weapons locker. One of the departments I was with had some old USMC Reisings with CD stickers on them. Nobody ever shot them, they were more of a conversation piece.

[IrishJoe3]

Back in the 50's & 60's the feds would give police departments military surplus weapons for "civil defense" purposes. Some were used, some just gathered dust in a weapons locker. One of the departments I was with had some old USMC Reisings with CD stickers on them. Nobody ever shot them, they were more of a conversation piece.

But but but.....I thought cops with full auto was just a recent thing, y'know, the militarization of law enforcement???

[Ron-Solo]

LASD SEB uses MP5's and HK416's that have F/A capability. The central armory still has several F/A Thompsons left over from the age of Prohibition and some WWII Risings and a BAR. They seldom come out of the armory, usually for some shooting demo.

Before the AR platform became popular, the rural patrol units carried Winchester Model 94's in .30-30. There was one in the armory that was documented to be over 100 years old. I think it is in a museum now.

[swat]

Why would there be a thompson in a police armory? I am assuming confiscated guns would be stored somewhere else so the only reason I could think of as to why it would be there is if its been there since the 40's... sorry for threadjacking

Years ago when I worked for a PD (that shall go nameless) we had quiet a few select fire weapons. We had dozens of surplus M-16A1's, 30 or so MP-5's for the SWAT folks, then an odd assortment of Uzi's, Thompson SMG's, Mac 10's, and a number of homemade full autos, etc... I never knew how we acquired the misc weapons, but I suspect most of them were seized as a result of some sort investigation. Most of the LE rangemasters are "gun nuts" and tend to acquire or retain weapons that caught their eye. I can tell you it is a blast to fire some of those weapons. My two favorites are the MP-5 and Thompson 1928! The Mac 10's were pieces of crap and I would never fire a homemade conversion for fear of a catastrophic incident. At the very least it is a good idea to have officers familiar with a wide variety of firearms (including select fire) so that they can render them safe when encountered in the field.

Hope that answers your inquiry

[BigDogatPlay]

The first small agency I worked for in the mid 70's had at some point acquired some M2 carbines from DoD as surplus. A couple rode in a secured storage locker in the trunk of the sergeant's car and the chief had one in the trunk of his city car. They were pretty darned cool. Those could well be still in the armory all these years later for all I know as every agency I've been at never thought about disposing of old weapons and would just put them in the armory to collect dust.

Local to me, Sonoma County SO, Santa Rosa PD, Petaluma PD, Rohnert Park DPS and Lake County SO are all known to have at least some class 3 equipment available for their tactical teams. A couple of current and former Rohnert Park DPS guys were caught with illegal personally owned class 3 a year or two ago and a correctional officer / rangemaster with Lake County SO was hooked up for shenanigans with agency owned weapons, including class 3 not quite two years back.

A Santa Rosa officer had his assigned guns, one reportedly an FA, stolen out of his unmarked city car when he was at an out of town training class a while back. There was some stir in the local press for a few days after that. Similarly, last year, Santa Rosa PD took serious heat from the progressive majority here and about when they had a booth at a community outreach event where local kids got to handle some of the tactical teams unloaded goodies under direct supervision of officers to help the kids learn some gun safety and get past the 'wow factor' when seeing a gun. The mayor, a retired SRPD lieutenant himself, publicly took the side of the department and the kerfuffle eventually died down.

Class 3 are definitely out there in agency hands, probably in larger numbers than the average taxpayer might think about. Sadly they only seem to get any kind of press when one of our brothers or sisters does something less than stellar with one.