AR-15s give rangers a strong boost in their beat

TWIN FALLS, Idaho – Lisa Schutzberger pulled one on a wanted felon holed up at a campsite in Oregon. She slung another over her shoulder before confronting a mob of unruly paint-ballers in Idaho.

Now, as one of only two rangers in charge of maintaining law and order on the 4.3 million acres in the Bureau of Land Management’s Twin Falls district, Schutzberger said she is glad the BLM issues her a weapon – a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle.

The agency began outfitting rangers with the semiautomatic rifles a few years ago. Rangers, the agency said, are no different than police officers; they just patrol a much larger beat.

At her last job along Oregon’s Rogue River, Schutzberger drew a BLM-issued handgun on a felon with an outstanding warrant.

“I got him to the ground, handcuffed him and took him into custody,” she told the Twin Falls Times-News.

Some in southern Idaho, however, have begun questioning why bureau rangers need the AR-15 rifles after Schutzberger’s gun went missing in May.

James Larsen, 22, was accused by Twin Falls police of slipping into a ranger station with two friends and taking Schutzberger’s weapon from a parked vehicle.

Schutzberger scoffs at any criticism and says she needs the rifle for safety when traveling alone in the remote 13-county district – the largest in Idaho. “If somebody said you don’t need an AR-15, you’ve never run across a convicted felon, I guess,” she said.

Rangers are attacked less frequently than police and sheriff’s officers, national statistics show.

BLM officers were assaulted at an approximate rate of 7.5 per hundred in 2004, while other officers were assaulted at a rate of nearly 12 per hundred.