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Gun deal misfire$: Recalled pistols waste tax dollars
By Dave Wedge
Boston Herald Chief Enterprise Reporter
Thursday, December 7, 2006 - Updated: 12:52 AM EST
Faulty high-tech guns sold to state police in a deal brokered by a retired trooper-turned-salesman jammed during tests and were yanked off the streets, resulting in hefty training costs and leaving cops dangerously vulnerable.
The department began arming troopers with the .40-caliber Sig Sauer double-action Kellerman pistols Nov. 13 and spent thousands in taxpayer dollars sending cops to the New Braintree gun range for daylong training sessions on the new weapons.
But after 152 troopers were already on the streets with the new guns, officials learned four were defective and jammed during firing.
The defect left an undetermined number of troopers possibly defenseless on the job before the weapons were recalled. Some officers were even told to stay home from work because of the risk, sources told the Herald.
“They were having some serious malfunctions,” one trooper said. “Some guys couldn’t report to work until they went to the range to get their old gun back.”
The guns were summarily recalled, but not without damage to taxpayers. Not only did the department pay to train troopers on the new guns, it also shelled out overtime for troopers to be retrained on their old guns, as required by contract.
One trooper who received a new gun said his “fired flawlessly,” but he was still called at home at night and told to immediately report to the gun range the following morning to get back his old sidearm.
“It was discovered early and they put the brakes on it,” the trooper said of the flap. “They took action right away and rectified it.”
According to sources, the lucrative deal for the new guns was brokered by Nicholas Marcotte, a retired trooper who is now the Northeast regional sales manager for Exeter, N.H.-based gun maker Sigarms Inc. A company spokesman declined comment.
The guns cost $562 each but the department was reimbursed $462 for each of 90 of the old pistols as a trade-in. A total cost of $43,875 for the 152 guns was paid to a third-party vendor, state police spokesman Lt. William Powers said.
Powers said the problem was a “modification to the trigger bar,” which sources said apparently occurred during assembly.
“As an immediate precautionary action all 152 weapons that had been issued to department members were recalled,” Powers said.
He added that after Sig Sauer engineers tested all of the new weapons “it was determined that they were acceptable for distribution.”
The new guns have been issued to the latest graduating class of troopers and the department is planning to continue dispersing them to troopers.
The guns, which are used by federal Homeland Security agents and the Coast Guard, are reportedly more accurate because they require consistent trigger pressure.
While the department says the problem has been addressed, the defective guns left some of the department’s 2,000 troopers uneasy.
Gun deal misfire$: Recalled pistols waste tax dollars
By Dave Wedge
Boston Herald Chief Enterprise Reporter
Thursday, December 7, 2006 - Updated: 12:52 AM EST
Faulty high-tech guns sold to state police in a deal brokered by a retired trooper-turned-salesman jammed during tests and were yanked off the streets, resulting in hefty training costs and leaving cops dangerously vulnerable.
The department began arming troopers with the .40-caliber Sig Sauer double-action Kellerman pistols Nov. 13 and spent thousands in taxpayer dollars sending cops to the New Braintree gun range for daylong training sessions on the new weapons.
But after 152 troopers were already on the streets with the new guns, officials learned four were defective and jammed during firing.
The defect left an undetermined number of troopers possibly defenseless on the job before the weapons were recalled. Some officers were even told to stay home from work because of the risk, sources told the Herald.
“They were having some serious malfunctions,” one trooper said. “Some guys couldn’t report to work until they went to the range to get their old gun back.”
The guns were summarily recalled, but not without damage to taxpayers. Not only did the department pay to train troopers on the new guns, it also shelled out overtime for troopers to be retrained on their old guns, as required by contract.
One trooper who received a new gun said his “fired flawlessly,” but he was still called at home at night and told to immediately report to the gun range the following morning to get back his old sidearm.
“It was discovered early and they put the brakes on it,” the trooper said of the flap. “They took action right away and rectified it.”
According to sources, the lucrative deal for the new guns was brokered by Nicholas Marcotte, a retired trooper who is now the Northeast regional sales manager for Exeter, N.H.-based gun maker Sigarms Inc. A company spokesman declined comment.
The guns cost $562 each but the department was reimbursed $462 for each of 90 of the old pistols as a trade-in. A total cost of $43,875 for the 152 guns was paid to a third-party vendor, state police spokesman Lt. William Powers said.
Powers said the problem was a “modification to the trigger bar,” which sources said apparently occurred during assembly.
“As an immediate precautionary action all 152 weapons that had been issued to department members were recalled,” Powers said.
He added that after Sig Sauer engineers tested all of the new weapons “it was determined that they were acceptable for distribution.”
The new guns have been issued to the latest graduating class of troopers and the department is planning to continue dispersing them to troopers.
The guns, which are used by federal Homeland Security agents and the Coast Guard, are reportedly more accurate because they require consistent trigger pressure.
While the department says the problem has been addressed, the defective guns left some of the department’s 2,000 troopers uneasy.
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