Mayor-Elect Nixes Patrol Rifles for Boston PD

Boston Mayor-elect Martin J. Walsh is shooting down the plan to arm some Boston patrol officers with AR-15 rifles — setting up a potential showdown with the department which has backed the controversial measure, citing a need for high-powered weapons in light of school shootings and the marathon bombings, the Boston Herald reports.

"Mayor-elect Walsh is opposed to the AR-15 rifles," his spokeswoman Kathryn Norton said in a short statement. "Unless otherwise convinced by the Boston Police Department, he does not think they are necessary."

Walsh would have to approve a budget for 33 
AR-15 rifles at a cost of $2,500 each. Police were in the planning phases of acquiring the rifles to put in the cruisers of two specially trained beat cops in each of the city’s 11 districts.

Thomas Nolan, a former BPD lieutenant and now a criminal justice professor at the State University of New York, said Walsh is making the right decision. "If the cops have these machine guns, they’re going to use them," Nolan said. "Someone is going to get hurt, someone is going to get killed, an innocent bystander is going to get caught in the crossfire and there is going to be a tragic result," he said.