The Madison County Sheriff's Department in southern Illinois got quite a present for the holiday season: New .40 caliber Glock pistols.

Madison County sheriff’s deputies will be packing new heat in 2006.

The County Board voted unanimously at its meeting Wednesday night to replace the deputies’ .40-caliber Smith & Wesson service pistols with .40-caliber Glocks.

Sheriff Robert Hertz said before the meeting that some of the department’s 97 Smith & Wessons malfunctioned during deputy training sessions at the firing range in October.

Officials subsequently researched the issue of firearm reliability and noted that nearly 70 percent of law enforcement agencies nationwide are moving toward Glock pistols for their dependability.

In fact, both the Illinois State Police and the Alton Police Department made the switch to Glocks recently.

"It just seemed like now was the time to make the change," Hertz said. "I certainly don’t want to explain to a widow how her husband died because his gun malfunctioned."

Agreed. Although he'll still have to call to say her husband was killed by a criminal who bought his gun without a background check through a classified ad, but there's nothing we can do about that, right?

In addition, the sheriff's agency has set up an "ammunition trading" program, so that other agencies can loan them ammunition if they get in a prolonged firefight.

With several other area law enforcement agencies using Glocks, deputies will be able to share ammunition across departments if they are ever involved in a prolonged gun battle.

"You have to keep ahead of the criminals as far as firepower," said board member Harry Thurau, R-Glen Carbon.

Oh, of course you do.

Can you believe we're even hearing this? In Britain, where almost all firearms are tightly regulated, the police are arguing about whether or not they should even carry firearms, and yet in midwestern America, we're arguing about whether or not police will have enough ammunition for a "prolonged gun battle"!

We are past due for tighter gun regulation in this country. Next year, we'd rather not report that the Madison County Sheriff's Department has recieved a shiny new shipment of grenade launchers, just to keep up with all the weapons the criminals were able to get.