Small-town SWAT - 'Hobby cops' make residents nervous

BUTLER, Mo. -- Saying they want to be ready for anything, four gung-ho part-time police officers bought machine guns and called themselves a SWAT team. But their move is making city officials nervous.

The officers include a 72-year-old doctor, a nurse and two ambulance workers, who bought the fully automatic guns with their own money.

Butler Mayor Joe Fuller is not pleased.

"If you have a SWAT team, you want a highly trained group, not part-time 'hobby cops,"' Fuller said. "These guys are just thrill seekers."

The part-time deputies dispute that characterization, saying the machine guns are simply tools to help them protect their community. And they have the support of the sheriff and much of the public, who praise the good intentions of the four men.

But the question remains: Why would police need machine guns in a community of 4,209, where the police chief says crime typically involves bicycle thefts, drunken driving or domestic disputes?

Prepared for anything

To Bill Haynie, 72, a family physician who bought two of the machine guns, the answer is simple: You never know when you might need it.

That thought is echoed by his three partners -- Kelly Phillips, 41, a paramedic who oversees emergency services at Bates County Memorial Hospital; Brad McGuire, 36, a nurse at a Kansas City hospital; and Doug McGuire, 29, Brad's brother, who is a paramedic for the Belton Fire Department.

Haynie said the need for a local SWAT team armed with automatic weapons became obvious after the string of school shootings throughout the country in the late 1990s. So they bought four MP5 submachine guns and four M-16 rifles, and a dozen 30-round ammunition clips.

The catch was that federal law prohibits the private ownership of machine guns, and new ammo clips that hold more than 10 bullets. But police agencies can own them. So the four men, with the acquiescence of the former Butler police chief, told gun dealers that the weapons were being purchased by the Butler Police Department -- even though only Phillips was properly commissioned to be a part-time Butler police officer.

Haynie, Phillips and the McGuire brothers have asked city officials to turn the guns over to the Sheriff's Department, which could then return the weapons to the four men. The City Council voted last month to turn them over to a gun dealer so the city would no longer be liable for them. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has not yet approved the transfer.