Budman,
I had never heard of any Ed Brown guns before and if I hadn't just contacted Brownells about the snapped grip screw problem, I wouldn't even have made the connection about "Brown" equals Ed Brown. Wilson guns I am aware of, but I'd venture that they are rare in these parts.
Yup, PRM = Peoples Republic of Mass, an appropriately derogatory term about the state of our civil rights here.
Physically I guess that you could say that I live SW of Boston.
I'm aware of the issues SPAM has with the LECs, but since I no longer work for a PD, I have no first-hand knowledge of the real pluses and minuses. My personal opinion leads me to believe two things (positive) about them (but I make no judgment on cost-effectiveness):
- Some local officers are now getting real firearms training and more than once/year! Firearms training is NOT typically a priority for local PDs, so this is a plus even if it is only 1 or 2 officers in a department. Also, this training is tactical in nature whereas my prior experience with PD firearms training (19 years worth per MCJTC/MPTC standards for local PDs) was that it was strictly what I'd call "target shooting" . . . not real useful in a real LE tactical situation.
- Having more portable command center vans in the state can be useful in a real tactical situation.
I do wish that the MSP and local LE would work together more cooperatively and with mutual respect in Eastern MA, but being a realist I don't ever see that happening. A search here and a few other forums where I provided details of some incidents that I was involved in put some meat on my comments. I also (a long time ago) worked with the Director of Plant Security at Yankee Rowe, George Murphy (ret. Capt MSP IIRC), a real nice guy and we used to swap stories . . . of course MSP in Western MA DOES work cooperatively with the local PDs, it is a different world out there.
Enjoy our forum!