Should police expect a certain level of threat to their own life?

[A Black Falcon]

I read the first page of your link Falcon. A good point brought up is that American citizens are more armed than citizens of other countries. I don't feel like reading the rest, maybe later. How do you feel? I would venture a guess to the pro gun control realm. For myself, I've always been a little divided on gun control. Certainly firearms can be used safely and for good recreation. On the other hand, is the expense worth it? More guns means higher security, as police don't know if their perpetrator has a weapon.

Let's put aside an obvious case like Eric Garner. Let's say that an assailant does not have his hands showing. It takes a keen instinct and quick reflexes to disable a person you think has a weapon. An important objective on top of that is to disable them non-fatally. So perhaps more training in that arena, along with weapons that aren't lethal, like a stun gun and nightsticks. Do cops have hand-to-hand training, or is it mostly firearm?

Some say that less gun control makes crime drop, but I am skeptical of the statistic, having only heard it from an anti-gun-control advocate. One thing is true, guns are so widespread that taking them back would be a tricky, cumbersome task. I bet the NRA loves it when a democrat takes office. They can really jack up the rhetoric. Ammunition sales spike when people think their guns are being taken away. I need to pay attention the next time a democrat takes office and put some stock money into that shit.

Indeed, I strongly support gun control. Handguns should be banned (not all guns, focus on handguns because so much gun violence is committed with them), just like they are in the UK or Japan; it'd be a sure way to drop the crime rate. It DOES work, as crimerates in those countries show.

It is true that enforcing gun control would be difficult, you'd probably have to phase it in or something. The benefits would be huge, though, and the "but any criminal could get a gun regardless" excuse just doesn't hold up, or else you'd have a lot more gun crime in nations which ban handguns.

I know it won't happen because of how powerful the NRA is, but seriously, getting rid of handguns would almost certainly also drop police violence, because as has been pointed out, police probably do use their guns so often in this country in part because they expect people to be armed.

These people apparently forget that this country was founded on rioting. Boston Tea Party anyone? Funny how no one has the same attitude about that. When White people riot, it's for a Purpose. When Black people riot, the Fox News of the world love to paint them as Thugs. It's White supremacy underneath the surface, and it doesn't take a whole lot of IQ points to see.

Good point. And on that note:



It's very true, isn't it.

Honestly, as far as politics go, I posit that if a person reaches a certain level of emotional intelligence, there's hardly a debate on certain issues. Welfare programs, housing for the poor, etc. Anyone with proper empathic sense can and should see that reducing the misery of the state's citizens, is more important than getting "gouged" by taxes or whatever. Look, the state provides you with policemen, roads, phone lines, transportation. If you don't want to pay into the state for the welfare of its people, then get the fuck out. Go to a libertarian paradise like Somalia, see how well you thrive you fucking dipshit.

I wonder if or when America will again have two political parties who actually believe in governing, as we once did... because currently we certainly don't, there are the (mostly very centrist) Democrats, and then the crazies on the right who want to burn everything down. The actual left is small.