Arizona sheriff arming deputies with AR-15 style rifles to 'fight back' against criminals

via FoxNews.

An Arizona sheriff is arming his deputies with AR-15-style assault rifles to give them “enough firepower to fight back” against criminals who he says are carrying increasingly dangerous weapons.
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio made the announcement on Thursday, the same day one of his employees, 27-year-old Jorge Vargas, was gunned down as he walked into his driveway to head to work.
"We live in a violent society, even here in Maricopa County, and across our nation, and the least we can do is to arm our deputies…,” Arpaio said, according to Fox 10 News. "My deputies will carry guns 24 hours a day, even off duty. If they see any incident occurring, they will take action anywhere in this valley."

Read the whole thing over at FoxNews.

I'll add a personal opinion too.  Something seems a little hinky about the Vargas shooting but to the bigger issue about deputies being armed 24/7 and responding to crime that they see occurring, I'll simply say wow.

That's raising the bar pretty high.  No.  That's raising the bar very high.  Consider the issues here.  A deputy is out with his wife and kids for a saturday outing and some idiots decide to start duking it out.  It turns into a shootout.  Does the deputy respond?  Is calling it in and waiting for backup enough?  If he is to serve and protect then that applies doubly to his family right?  If the deputy is switched on then he would probably see the signs of trouble before it actually erupts.  If he gets a 'sense' that trouble is coming (don't laugh I'm convinced we all have it..some just choose to ignore their primal senses) and leaves before hand has he violated the sheriff's order?

And last but not least.

I don't consider this to be militarization of law enforcement.

First issue is that deputies operate far from each other, often in single man cars and backup is many minutes away.  Next you're talking about this happening on the individual deputy level.  We're not seeing Combat Team LEO's getting together to kick doors.

Its simply deputies getting America's rifle in their cars.  Quite honestly they're probably behind the power curve.  If the Sheriff was being cutting edge he'd be getting his guys 300 BlkOuts.