The Los Angeles Unified School District is giving up “three grenade launchers” it acquired for its police department, but it will keep the “60 M16” rifles and an armored vehicle.
According to the Associated Press, the district received the grenade launchers, rifles, and armored vehicle through a “Pentagon surplus program,” which allows the DOD to transfer surplus wartime military equipment to police departments. The program drew heavy criticism after the show of force by police amid the riots in Ferguson, Missouri, and the L.A. district is getting rid of its grenade launchers because of that controversy.
The school district did an assessment and determined the grenade launchers “are not essential life-saving items within the scope, duties and mission” of the district’s police department.
L.A. school district police chief Steve Zipperman said the district will keep the M16s, which are used for training. They will also keep the armored vehicle, an MRAP, for use in “extraordinary circumstances involving a life-saving situation for an armed threat.”
The MRAP “was built to withstand mine blasts” in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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Pictured: AR-15 (File photo)