Law Enforcement blasters came up in conversation with my mate Tuomo, recently.
Tuomo has been through a range of blaster styles: from clean to painted; impression to interpretation. I can pretty much guarantee that when he says, “I have a new blaster to show you…” I’ll want to blog it.
Anyway, he knows his stuff and he said something recently which chimed with me about Police or Law Enforcement (LE) blasters. They tend to be distinctive: straightforward, clean, unpainted, KISS builds.
Where this gets really interesting, though, is in the modernisation of LE special units.
Many readers will be able to recognise and interpret all the influences on display in the two pics directly above, because they’ve probably been watching the originators of those influences – USSOF – for years.
Look at the badges, though. These Multicam-adorned gentlemen with painted blasters are FBI.
However, it’s not the increasingly blurred line between SOF and LE that I want to highlight here.
Instead, the conversation with Tuomo brought a particular photoset to mind:
So what are these LAPD guys using?
Well, there has clearly been major investment in their equipment:
- HK416, as already adopted by many European LE special units
- Geissele HK SMR, as well as HK’s own quad rail
- DBAL-A2
- Magpul MBUS sights
- A mixture of stocks including the Magpul CTR
- A mixture of optics, including an Aimpoint Micro T1 on a Daniel Defense fixed mount
- No can
- Standard birdcage flash hider
- All in black with no FDE to be seen
- No paint
I doubt many people will be running around woodland sites head to toe in dark navy after reading this, but not everyone matches their blaster to their loadout.
However, the distinctiveness of modern LE blasters gives us more food for thought in the styling of our PTW, NGRS, or whatever.
And that’s cool.
The Reptile House 