Balto. Co. to buy new pistols for its police

County spending $1.4M to replace guns that could accidentally misfire or fail

structors learned in August from the Arizona Department of Public Safety that the FNS-40 could fire accidentally.

Baltimore County initially worked with the gun’s manufacturer, FN America, a subsidiary of the Belgian company Fabrique Nationale Herstal, to replace a faulty striker pin in the guns in September.

Baltimore County is spending more But county officers had another probthan $1.4 million to replace pistols used by lem with some of the FNS-40 pistols: a county police that may have a tendency to roll pin inside the trigger could fall out, accidentally misfire — or not fire at all. causing the trigger to separate from the

The county awarded a no-bid contract gun and rendering it unable to fire. The to replace more than 2,000 FNS-40 department has logged at least three guns pistols used by its police officers, sheriff’s with this problem in the past two years. deputies and correctional officers with Meanwhile, an officer was injured in weapons made by Glock. September when the officer’s gun acci

The move came after mounting condentally fired during a classroom training cerns about the pistols’ safety. session. Two years ago, an officer acci

“The department understands that dentally shot himself during training, officers lost confidence in carrying this when he pulled a gun from his holster and service weapon, so there was an immediwas preparing to shoot at a target. He ate need to explore a new service weapon suffered minor injuries. that our officers will have confidence In another incident in 2016, a gun carrying,” said Cpl. Shawn Vinson, a accidentally fired in the Pikesville spokesman for the police department. precinct station while in an officer’s

Baltimore County’s firing range in-

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PISTOLS , holster. No one was injured.

Officials with FN America did not respond to a request for comment Monday. The company previously issued a service bulletin warning that some of its pistols could delay in firing after pulling the trigger under certain — but “unlikely” — conditions. The company offered to fix affected guns.

Vinson said it became clear this fall the department and its officers wanted to move to a different model of gun.

“At that point, the department made the decision to explore a new service weapon,” Vinson said.

In a memo to budget officials, county police Chief Terrence B. Sheridan wrote: “The current duty pistol has shown that a catastrophic failure could occur. Should this failure happen the officers of the [county police force] may not be able to protect the citizens of Baltimore County or themselves in an emergency.”

A team tested out various types of police pistols from Glock, Sig Sauer and Smith & Wesson, settling on a Glock 17 Gen5, a 9-mm pistol that’s popular among police agencies, Vinson said.

The county entered into an emergency contract — bypassing normal procurement rules — with Atlantic Tactical, a Pennsylvania company, to purchase the new guns.

The contract, awarded last month, has been sent to members of the Baltimore County Council for review. County rules require that the council be notified of all no-bid contracts worth more than $25,000.

The total purchase will be $1,443,773.85, which includes 2,065 guns as well as holsters, magazines, magazine pouches, gun lights, “dummy” guns used for training and other accessories.

Patrol officers are glad to be getting new guns, said Cole Weston, president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 4.

“There have been a couple of incidents that have caused concern about the reliability and the appropriate function of the weapon, and that prompted the department to look at replacing the weapon,” Weston said. “I think the officers in the field would feel more comfortable with a different weapon that they would have confidence in.”

Baltimore County law enforcement will join Baltimore City police officers, Howard County police officers, Maryland State Police troopers and sheriff’s deputies in Carroll County and Harford County in carrying Glock-made pistols. Anne Arundel County police officers carry a gun manufactured by Sig Sauer.

Baltimore County’s officers previously carried Sig Sauers, which were ditched in favor of the FNS-40 pistols in 2013. The FNS-40 is a semi-automatic pistol that fires .40-caliber bullets, which are slightly larger than 9mm rounds.

At the time, the cost for the FNS-40 pistols, which are manufactured in Fredericksburg, Va., was about $1 million. That contract could have been as low as $300,000 if the county had agreed to trade in its old weapons. But the county declined in order to prevent the guns from eventually entering the open market.

The FNS-40 pistols will be sold to Glock, according to Vinson. It’s not yet clear how much money the county will recoup from the sale.