Know why American Police are so heavily armed?

[CavaliersFTW]

Because American Citizens can legally arm themselves. Heavily. The police, by nature, need to be able to respond to a heavily armed dangerous citizen, it's what we pay them for.

Interesting fact: Police are citizens too! They've just trained, and swore to serve and protect the rest of us citizens who obey the law peacefully from the dangerous few that don't. So you want to flash statistics of countries like the UK around and how many UK citizens have been shot by police, well, citizens aren't allowed to own guns in the UK... so their police don't carry them either. You can own heavy anti-material weapons in the U.S. you can get permits for almost anything depending on where you live. Our police have to be adequately prepared for the instances where some asshole with no regard for human life gets a hold of that kind of stuff.

For better or worse whenever dangerous weapons are allowed in the hands of citizens, police need to be armed accordingly, and weapon related accidents and incidents are going to happen.

So long as U.S. Citizens have gun rights, which is an entirely seperate topic, I whole-heartedly want to be protected by police forces that CAN respond to situations like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZg4mcYkIwU

[KingBeasley08]

Honestly, if it was a choice between no one having guns and police and citizens have guns, I'd take the second one.

F*ck the haters, the second amendment kicks ass

[CavaliersFTW]

Honestly, if it was a choice between no one having guns and police and citizens have guns, I'd take the second one.

F*ck the haters, the second amendment kicks ass

Some posters on here, I don't know if they aren't from the U.S. or what, but they've got this idea like our police are super unfairly militant and need to be disarmed down to stun guns and pepper spray or something. When I know several people from my old hometown who carry assault rifles right under the seat of their truck. I grew up in a hick town where it was/is normal. And some of these people are NOT who I'd call stable individuals. As long as citizens can freely carry weapons like that, police need to be capable of counteracting them accordingly if (heaven forbid) they ever needed to.

[CavaliersFTW]

Why?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SPl9FvSrck

Because don't you think that looks fun?

[Kblaze8855]

As I said:

Our police are far more afraid due to our criminals being far better armed.

[Dictator]

Being heavily armed has nothing to do with police abusing their powers.

[SCdac]

As long as criminals own guns en masse, it's totally understandable to let law abiding citizens of age defend themselves with the same amount of force. Hell, when somebody goes the extra step of registering for a concealed carry license, they typically become even less likely to commit a crime.. at least in Texas. CHL holders, in some statistics I was looking at, made up way less than 1% of the felonies within a certain year (think it was 2012). Generally speaking, people who legally own guns and look after them responsibly are not the people America should be worried about.

[CavaliersFTW]

Being heavily armed has nothing to do with police abusing their powers.

True, but different topic entirely. I'm just making sure it is understood why our police are as armed as they are.

Also KBlaze makes an interesting point. A good portion of lethal incidents might indeed be caused by fear and can't just be pigeon holed into abuse of power. Accidents are a statistical fact, and when people are armed, citizen police or otherwise, the more lethal the accident.

[chips93]

Honestly, if it was a choice between no one having guns and police and citizens have guns, I'd take the second one.

do you not think that the second one is inherently more dangerous for everyone?

[KingBeasley08]

do you not think that the second one is inherently more dangerous for everyone?

Don't really think so. Majority of murders are in the US are by violent criminals. Don't see why I gotta lose my guns cause some shit bag thugs in Chicago are killing each other

Fun fact: Chicago has the strictest gun control laws in the country. So much for it working

DC has actually improved since handguns became legal. Most of these gun control don't look at violent crimes. They hear a story of someone getting killed in Middle (White) America and that's when they start to panic.

[DeuceWallaces]

I would prefer taking away guns from the police and the people.

[SCdac]

People aren't worried about those people, they're worried about guns killing them. Who cares if a few responsible people get f*cked over? That happens with basically everything. Some people can use cocaine responsibly, doesn't mean it should be legal.

If it's your aim to protect people, it's better to stop 50 morons from carrying guns than it is to keep one responsible person carrying a gun.

few responsible people? what do you mean by that? there are millions of responsible gun owners in the US. Multiple generations. I'm all for gun ownership and naturally I take advantage of the right to own. and I'm just a normal dude, not some gun toting cowboy or something

As far as police weaponry, which I didn't really comment on, how armed they are should be relevant to the situation and city. Handgun at the least, more powerful weapons as an incident becomes more dangerous and involves the masses. With over 1.4 million people in my city, and cities much larger than that in the US, there's no way civilians could possibly police themselves. Having said that, police becoming highly militarized is a genuine problem.

It's questionable whether super strict gun laws work as intended. I've seen evidence supporting both sides of the argument. Criminals won't give a shit either way tho, they tend to target the weak and unarmed.

[DeuceWallaces]

What's natural about owning a gun.

[ace23]

Fun fact: Chicago has the strictest gun control laws in the country. So much for it working

And your control group is...? You think it'd be better off with looser laws? Why? Chicago is renown for its gangs, so of course homicide rates will be high regardless of the laws.

[SCdac]

What's natural about owning a gun.

what's natural about protecting yourself, or survival? ... everything

We don't live in utopia. if we did, this wouldn't even be a discussion