Published: 6/23/2016 12:17:27 AM
Sturm, Ruger, the firearm company with headquarters in Connecticut and a plant in Newport, has donated a supply of guns to the Henniker police department that was accepted by the select board at Tuesday’s meeting.
The company supplied the Warner Police Department with new firearms last month at no charge as well.
For Henniker, Ruger has donated 16 American 9 mm pistols, 16 LC9 compact off-duty pistols and four SR556 patrol rifles. Ruger also included holsters for the sidearms, as well as sights and barrels for the rifles to handle various caliber ammunition.
The lot is valued at more than $35,000, according to Henniker police Chief Matt French, who said he had not heard of a firearms company making such contributions to local departments.
“I’ve never seen this before,” French said. “Not until it started happening with area departments.”
In addition to Henniker and Warner, police in Sutton are testing new equipment provided by Ruger.
French said Henniker police Officer Stephen Dennis spearheaded an effort to apply for the contribution from Ruger when he heard other departments in the region were getting free guns. French signed a letter May 17 detailing why the department should be considered. One week later, Ruger responded and the department was accepted to receive the new equipment.
“It happened so fast,” French said. “We’re very fortunate to be one of the departments to get it. It is a huge savings for the town.”
The department’s old guns, a collection of firearms from Newington-based Sig Sauer, will be sold through a firearms retailer. French said the new guns are expected to last between 10 and 14 years.
(Nick Stoico can be reached at 369-3309, nstoico@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @NickStoico.)