You don't have to know much about the town of Percy, population 965, to know that its Police Department doesn't need 10 M-16 military assault rifles.

Doesn't need, and their very presence is making some of the town's leaders uncomfortable. One village board member was so concerned that someone might try to steal them, he tried to get the automatic weapons stored in a bank vault. The bank wanted no part of them, either.

Why does Percy need that sort of firepower, people ask? We'd love to hear an explanation from Dave Rednour, the part-time officer and state prison warden who obtained the weapons. Maybe he thought obtaining all that fire power would look impressive and help him land the chief's job. Alas, he didn't return our phone calls. He quit his part-time police job when he didn't get hired as chief.

The question we'd really like answered is why the federal government thought it made sense to give the M-16s to Percy. Clearly there wasn't a public safety need. More likely the reason is simply because Rednour was enough of an insider to know about the government surplus program and know how to ask.

So what to do with the M-16s? Newly named Mayor Brian Aldridge is working to give back the guns to the federal government.

Finally, some common sense.