#LawEnforcement

Glock handguns used by the police department of the Kentucky city of Bardstown have developed serious cracks after more than 15 years of duty. WDRB 41 Louisville News covered the issues in a segment available online, saying the issues affected a dozen handguns – about half of those issued to the Department. The guns were purchased in 2000, and have seen heavy use since then, leading to the cracks that in some cases caused the guns to disassemble. The firearms are chambered in the .40 S&W caliber, and that – combined with a decade and a half of training that could include the duty handgun being fired in an officer’s off-time practice, caused hairline cracks in the guns’ slides, causing failures of the slide to lock back, and in at least one case spontaneous disassembly.

I found this video on Facebook. It seems to be shot from the perspective of the audience and the officers are performing for the audience. It is really apparent when a third officer joins them and holds targets for them to shoot while he is down range.

I’ve kept my eyes open for literature regarding the new Brügger & Thomet carbine family, since I managed to miss their booth at the 2015 SHOT Show. Fortunately, Defense Review covered the rifle at the show, which appears to be essentially similar in operation to the AR-180 and G36 (I haven’t seen any pictures of the bolt yet, but I suspect it’s a Johnson-type multilug design):

An article that came out in The Smithsonian talks about a device made by Yardarm Technologies that once placed and activated in the backstrap of a handgun, allows a real time feed back to a Police headquarters that shows if the gun has been fired, or how many times it has been fired, in addition to the location of the gun. The company is based in Capitola, California and is testing their product with various local California Law Enforcement agencies.