Marion Now Proposes Picking Up Bill for 32 AR-15 Rifles for Police Officers

The Marion City Council's discussion on purchasing AR-15's semi-automatic rifles at the behest of the Marion Police has drawn some unexpected national media attention.

But far from being dissuaded by the press chatter, it looks like the council might be ready to go all in.

At tomorrow's formal city council meeting the council will discuss the purchase of now 32 AR-15 rifles at the cost of $63,824. Furthermore, the city council will not make the officers pay and eventually own the rifles, as was originally discussed, but rather is leaning toward paying the amount and having the city own the rifles.

Note: a PDF with the rest of the agenda is attached to this article.

"Based on the discussions that took place during the city council's work session Tuesday night, it looks like the city council members will be more comfortable with the city purchasing the weapons and keeping them afterward," said Marion City Manager Lon D. Pluckhahn.

Pluckhahn said the council considered that the officer money might be better spent on equipment that requires customization for certain body types, such as bullet proof vests.

As for the 32 number, this would be the amount needed to arm all 32 non-SWAT officers currently employed by the Marion Police. Nine other officers trained for SWAT currently already have AR-15 rifles.

"When the idea was first brought up, there were 25 officers who were willing to reimburse the city for the cost of the weapons and own them at the end. Now that the council has decided that the city should own them, we are outfitting all the officers with them," Pluckhahn said.

He said since the council already approved the purchase of the 25 rifles the item will come up for debate again as a 32 rifle purchase, which will supercede the vote at a later meeting this month that would approve the 25 rifle purchase. The 25 rifle vote motion, no longer necessary but still on the books needing approval, would later be voted down if all goes as expected.