This post is written by my husband, Chris Staley. As a US Army veteran who was in Infantry for years. He’s a gun person and understands tactical issues. I asked him to evaluate the Barrel Breacher. I obtained a public record request regarding the purchase of this equipment. In response, Chip and his PPD buddies had WEAR do a story yesterday. Hard to believe that is coincidental.

That sound you hear is $50 grand of Escambia County citizens’ money going down the drain. Thanks Sheriff Chip for being a great custodian, guess you’re preoccupied in the gym, wink, wink. We all know government entities waste money, it just sucks when you see a chunk get spent on a useless tool. 

What is this useless tool? It’s Dark Mountain Arms “Barrel Breacher”. That sounds cool! This device magnetically attaches to the barrel of a deputy’s rifle, which allows them to then fire a single shotgun breaching round to theoretically gain entry through a locked door. Still sounds cool.

Nothing to screw on, just slide this over the barrel of the rifle; the magnet holds it in place. Then it’s just pushed against the area of the door that contains the lock, boom, door opens. Simple and glorious in theory. Ideas like this are dreamt up by a couple of guys drinking and drawing on a napkin. Then the light of day reveals the folly of their concept. 

The breacher first is loaded by unscrewing the front, placing the special “breaching” shotgun shell in and screwing it back on. Then the device is slid over the rifle flash hider, the magnet holds it in place. To use, a grenade-like safety pin has to be removed. Then it just needs to be pressed against a hard surface and the pressure activated trigger fires.

Remember this is on the barrel of the rifle and needs to be removed to fire the rifle. Wonder if there is a video of a rifle being fired with the breacher still emplaced? I know he’s not a gun guy, but maybe Lt Haines would be willing to demonstrate.

So yes the door might be opened with this “master key” only to expose the deputy in the wide open door way. In this fatal funnel, they will be trying to remove the breacher so they can engage the bad guy. They could also drop their rifle and engage with their pistol. While getting shot at or shot by the transgender gun person on the other side.

Come on, a single deputy won’t be trying to breach a door right? Oh yeah! That’s what these are for. The SWAT team has real tools. These are meant primarily for the School Resource Officers. 

Yes the SRO’s will receive training, part of the $50K. FYI I would love to come see them go through this training. 

Let’s think through usage. These will be in the SRO’s vehicles with their rifles. Heaven forbid an incident happens. The deputy has to immediately decide to engage with their sidearm or retreat to their vehicle. The age old decision that separates the brave from an Ulvalde Officer. 

So they decide to grab their rifle and the breacher and finally run towards the gunfire. Ideally they had their training that day. When the SHTF training needs to kick in. Not a familiarization, but actual continual training. The SRO’s don’t get that with their sidearms, let alone rifles. Will never happen with this. In fact this limited “training” might make this device more harmful than useful. 

Let’s say they manage to load the shotgun shell and screw the device back on. How many of us drop things when they are trying to do things quickly, not to mention adrenaline? Now they arrive at the door. In the chaos of the situation, I envision them smashing it into the door repeatedly with no results because they forgot to pull the safety pin. Or even more likely, maybe they pulled the pin while running, but they slip and the breacher fires when it touches the floor or a leg, ouch. 

I know these are professionals, so the door is breached. The deputy now has to reach to the front of their rifle and pull in that same direction to remove this boondoggle. Would have to be a magician to pull that off in one movement, under fire and moving through a doorway. 

Toys are toys and us guys all love to play with things that go boom. A simple change would have been to mount this parallel to the barrel, if they make that change I should get royalties. It’s a one and done. It makes the rifle useless after that first shot until you remove this piece of junk. Any additional steps, in the heat of the moment, creates extra forethought. But as is, this device is a waste of money at best and a danger to everyone at worst. 

Here is the purchasing records from ECSO as well as comments on an article on thefirearmblog.com.