capable of fully automatic fire, with the intent to convert all of them to semi-automatic to comply with NPS policy.
Another MNP park ranger told us that he was not involved in selecting the Colt M-4 Model R0977 rifles and had no firsthand knowledge of how that model was selected. He recalled that the process for purchasing new rifles began in 2008 or 2009, when a decision was made to update the Vietnam-era M-16s that rangers were carrying on patrol. He was not sure who initiated the purchase of the new rifles, but he thought that the supervisory park ranger and the park ranger/armorer probably made the recommendation to the then-chief ranger. The park ranger believed that this particular M-4 model was selected because it met the mil-spec requirements in the NPS policy. He did not know of any other park rangers outside of MNP who had fully automatic rifles. He knew that NPS policy prohibited rangers from carrying fully automatic rifles on duty but told us that he did not speak with anyone about it other than the park ranger/armorer.
In an interview with a third park ranger, she told us that in late 2008 or early 2009 she was told by the supervisory park ranger that the park rangers at MNP would be receiving new M-4 rifles capable of firing fully automatic. She did not know who selected or ordered the rifles, or who approved their purchase, but she assumed that the supervisory park ranger was involved since he had told her about it. She knew that fully automatic rifles violated NPS policy, but the supervisory park ranger told her that MNP had received a waiver from the NPS Pacific West Region to purchase them. She said that she later questioned the existence of a waiver after the supervisory park ranger told her not to tell rangers at other parks that they had fully automatic rifles or to discuss the rifles around MNP management. She carried her rifle while on patrol at MNP until the new chief ranger arrived in October 2013 and ordered that all of the rifles be converted to semi-automatic.
When we interviewed the retired chief ranger who was chief ranger at MNP from January 2011 until January 2013, he told us that the Colt M-4 rifles were already in the inventory at MNP when he arrived there in 2011. He said that he was not aware that the M-4 rifles were fully automatic, and he could not remember having any discussions with anyone at MNP about the fully automatic weapons. He also did not remember shooting any of the M-4 rifles while he was chief ranger.
We interviewed an employee of Colt’s Manufacturing Company, who said that between 2008 and 2010 she was the Colt representative that NPS employees contacted to purchase the M-4 rifles. She could not recall whom she had spoken with or the details of the conversation, but she did remember making sure that they understood the weapon they were purchasing was a fully automatic rifle.
Our investigation determined that in 2014, the price of a fully automatic Colt M-4 rifle is approximately $216 more than the Colt M-4 semi-automatic rifle.
5
