US Police Guns Debate

One of the big problems with US police, I think, is that police have to carry a firearm because anyone they run into can carry a firearm. In countries where firearms are regulated to the point where both legal and illegal firearm possession is rare, police can just carry batons and not expect to find themselves facing a gun.

It's a sad fact in the USA that you might encounter an armed criminal almost anywhere. I have personally seen a bunch of crimes involving gunfire, rather than mere brandishing of weapons.On the other hand, police carry a lot of weapons, typically a handgun, pepper spray, a taser, a baton, and a heavy switchblade knife, plus a shotgun or rifle in the car. But they're relatively poorly trained and (even taking police claims at face value) deaths of civilians have resulted from

The police have guns to protect themselves, not us.

I think the big issue is that every 2 bit cop and traffic officer has constant access to weapons despite 90% of interactions not requiring them. And do not use them as a last resort.When I visit Europe or South America the only places that I saw officers with guns were in international traffic hubs, important government offices, or Army troops making patrols. Police officers usually only had access to batons, tasers, or pepper spray.However we live in a society that has been flooded by ubi

I don't know what the commentator is referring to. But, there's a wide-spread belief in the UK that arming the police is a bad idea - since it leads to issues. There has been an increase in the number of 'armed police' with the perceived increase in terror: but there's no much support for widely arming the police. I think that's likely to be a key difference in how the police are perceived in the UK and the USA.

Too me it seems a fairly logical conclusion.A police office in the US has to assume the perpetrator will be armed with a weapon and that then leads to the 'shoot first ask questions later' approach to policing.Alternatively, places where guns are not so prevalent means that anxiety is greatly reduced.As an example the majority of English police (i.e. bobbies) do their patrol work while not carrying a gun.

The problem is not just the police in the US to me it is the easy access to heavy weaponry by normal people. If it was hard for normal citizens to have guns police would not be shoot first ask question later mode all the time.

Police wouldn't be so trigger happy if guns weren't so pervasive.

I am very sorry to hear you’re at a total loss in trying to understand why the police would need guns. Do you live in the US?

Police in the US have a much looser set of "rules of engagement" than US armed forces do overseas. The police will draw and point their guns for a huge variety of reasons, because they feel afraid, because of the skin color of someone they're approaching, or simply because they want to encourage compliance. And the police are often quite free with using non-lethal forms of violence, from tazers to pepper spray. It's really rather shocking that these things alone are tolerated