Neosho Council contemplates new rifles for police

The Neosho Police Department could get a bargain price on 27 Fallout -CQB 9 millimeter rifles, if the Neosho City Council accepts an offer made by Black Rain Ordinance, a firearm manufacturing company located between Joplin and Neosho.

Black Rain has offered the Flower Box City the new rifles at at a price of five-thousand dollars, about one-fifth of the retail price.

To accept the deal, the Neosho City Council would have to put the approve a written proposal for the agreement which would include the trade-in of nine surplus M-16s it has now.

The Council passed the agreement on first reading to at its meeting earlier this week.

The 5-thousand dollars actually was the original cost estimate to upgrade the M-16s for police use.

As part of the agreement, after the trade-in, the guns would be transferred back to state ownership.

Justin Harvel, co-founder of Black Rain, is a 10-year veteran of the Neosho Police Department. His father also worked as a reserve officer in Neosho. Harvel says Black Rain sells guns to police departments nationwide and produces about 10 thousand guns a year.

The Neosho City Council will meet on Tuesday, March 19 to continue work on the agreement which includes the designation of the nine rifles the city now owns as surplus, a necessary step in moving the agreement forward.

Neosho City Manager Leland Butcher, a retired police lieutenant, calls the move an “incredible deal.”

#