Thread: N.C. alcohol chief resigns over assault-rifle flap

N.C. alcohol chief resigns over assault-rifle flap

The director of the North Carolina Division of Alcohol Law Enforcement has stepped down after it was exposed that the agency bought assault rifles for all of its agents and that two of the guns were missing, The News & Observer reports.

The agency purchased Sig Sauer Model 552 semi-automatic assault rifles, usually marketed to SWAT teams and Special Forces soldiers, for its 104 agents, The News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer reported Sept. 13. Each of the .22-caliber long-range rifles costs $1,495, and ALE Director Bill Chandler had also ordered one for his own use.

ALE agents rarely see situations in which deadly force is required, as their primary responsibility is to enforce state laws on the purchase and sale of alcoholic beverages.

Chandler agreed to retire after speaking with Reuben F. Young, the state secretary of the N.C. Department of Crime Control and Public Safety on Monday morning. Young said that the Sept. 13 article had raised significant concerns about the workings of the ALE.

"Obviously, you're always concerned when a firearm is misplaced or stolen," Young said. "There are folks out there who would get their hands on those who won't do good things with them."

(This post was written by USA TODAY intern Rose Foran.)

Posted by Michael Winter at 05:06 PM/ET, September 22, 2009 in Crime, Local news

http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/20 ... -flap.html

A misfire on our assault-rifle item

Yesterday we posted an item from The News & Observer about the director of the North Carolina Division of Alcohol Law Enforcement stepping down after it was exposed that the agency bought assault rifles for all of its agents and that two of the guns were missing.

That's all true. But Michael Biesecker, one of the authors of the N&O report, points out (correctly) that in summarizing the article, we inserted an error.

The Sig 552 rifles bought by the N.C. ALE use the same .223 caliber NATO round as the M-16, not the .22 Long Rifle as we wrote.

Biesecker points out that Sig does make a .22 caliber rifle for target shooting, but the ones in this story are far more powerful.

"It's a big difference for people who know guns," Biesecker notes, in something of an understatement.

We have corrected the error in our original post but wanted to underscore to our readers that the News & Observer had the correct information in their story all along. Sorry.

Posted by Doug Stanglin at 12:20 PM/ET, September 23, 2009

http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/20 ... item-.html