My 2 Cents: FOP Calls For OKC Officers To Be Armed With Rifles

Dallas Officers were briefly outgunned last Thursday, they had to take a more defensive posture with handguns instead of going after the sniper who had a rifle, until more heavily armed officers arrived.

In light of that, Wednesday, July 13, the Oklahoma City Police Union emailed me a copy of its letter asking the Chief of Police to allow Oklahoma City officers to carry personally-owned rifles to protect themselves and our citizens, bought with their own money or maybe donations.

I didn't realize they didn't all have access to rifles, a very small percentage do.

The FOP is also asking for more ballistic shields, ballistic helmets, and better body armor.

I learned Wednesday, the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center Police Department upgraded all 47 of their officers’ body armor two years ago, and half are equipped with rifles.

If city leaders or the police department are worried about the "optics" of Oklahoma City police officers running up to a dangerous scene with a rifle, I believe the public is far less concerned about that than hoping the officer is equipped to eliminate the threat quickly.

Times have changed folks.

I don't ever want the good guys to lose their fight or their lives because they were outgunned by the bad guys.

I'm Kelly Ogle and that's My 2 Cents.