Weapons in the Police Force?

[PJ]

This is a difficult issue for me. I admire the British system of gun control, including their police system, but I don't know if we could implement it in the U.S. I do believe not allowing the police to carry guns is a little extreme, as I don't support banning all guns. But if we implement strict gun control laws, legalize soft drugs and decriminalize hard ones, and loosen immigration restrictions, I could support restricting what kind of guns the police force can carry, at least to the point where they can carry only what a citizen can.

[TNF]

I favor disarming the police.

[bedstuy]

It's a frivolous question unless we radically change our gun regulations and the number of guns on the streets.  For the time being unless you want some areas of American cities to turn into Escape from New York or Robocop in terms of crime, the cops need to have guns.

[H. Ross Peron]

It's a frivolous question unless we radically change our gun regulations and the number of guns on the streets.  For the time being unless you want some areas of American cities to turn into Escape from New York or Robocop in terms of crime, the cops need to have guns.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I don't trust coppers enough to trust them to have guns.

[Ban my account ffs!]

I don't trust coppers enough to trust them to have guns.

I wish we could take them away from cops here as well.  I fear the only real solution with all the guns in this country would be to greatly stiffen the penalties for killing people in the line of duty. 

Even if you kill someone in self defense, you should have your gun taken away for at least a year while you go through counseling and leave.

If you kill someone that wasn't clearly self defense, you should lose your badge for 2 years and all gun/weapon rights.

If you kill someone in shady circumstances, you are kicked off the force and charged with the appropriate felony offence.

[TNF]

It's a frivolous question unless we radically change our gun regulations and the number of guns on the streets.  For the time being unless you want some areas of American cities to turn into Escape from New York or Robocop in terms of crime, the cops need to have guns.

Or, we could, y'know, address the root problem of most crime (unemployment and poverty) and preserve the right to keep and bear arms for self defense.

[bedstuy]

It's a frivolous question unless we radically change our gun regulations and the number of guns on the streets.  For the time being unless you want some areas of American cities to turn into Escape from New York or Robocop in terms of crime, the cops need to have guns.

Or, we could, y'know, address the root problem of most crime (unemployment and poverty) and preserve the right to keep and bear arms for self defense.

It's not an either or though.  We should try to have full employment and no poverty in America.  But, we should also try promote public safety and police are necessary for that.

You apparently think vigilantism is the way to go.  That's quite silly, I think.  Maybe if you live in small town you could think that street crime is best resolved with tons of weaponry equally distributed.  But, if you actually experienced crime, I think you would see things differently.

[H. Ross Peron]

It's a frivolous question unless we radically change our gun regulations and the number of guns on the streets.  For the time being unless you want some areas of American cities to turn into Escape from New York or Robocop in terms of crime, the cops need to have guns.

Or, we could, y'know, address the root problem of most crime (unemployment and poverty) and preserve the right to keep and bear arms for self defense.

So everybody should have the right to bear arms except the cops? And even if you established some sort of Workers' Paradise (tm) without poverty and full economic equality, there's still going to be people trying to go ahead simply due to the sociopaths and other unscrupulous types that naturally occur in the human species.

[politicallefty]

I think the biggest problem is that police officers in this country are not trained to use nonviolent restraint first. I think everything hinges upon how police officers are trained. They can be trained to use guns first or guns as a last resort. There are intermediate measures we can use for this country, which may or may not work for other countries. Absolute nonviolence may not work here, but we can certainly move away from violence-first measures.

[ElectionsGuy]

I would like to restrict the power of the police overall so that we don't live in a police state. But as far as weapons go, anything besides explosives, same as my gun policy with everyday citizens. Its what is done with those weapons that matter, not the weapons themselves.

[Link]

I do believe not allowing the police to carry guns is a little extreme, as I don't support banning all guns. But if we implement strict gun control laws, legalize soft drugs and decriminalize hard ones, and loosen immigration restrictions, I could support restricting what kind of guns the police force can carry, at least to the point where they can carry only what a citizen can.

Why?  Out of all the problems in our country how big of a problem is police officers abusing their firearms?  This isn't TV man.  Most police officers go their entire career without discharging their fire arm anywhere other than the practice range.  The UK isn't that different from the US.  Yes criminals have guns in the US but there are not widespread street battles with police on a daily basis.

[PJ]

I do believe not allowing the police to carry guns is a little extreme, as I don't support banning all guns. But if we implement strict gun control laws, legalize soft drugs and decriminalize hard ones, and loosen immigration restrictions, I could support restricting what kind of guns the police force can carry, at least to the point where they can carry only what a citizen can.

Why?  Out of all the problems in our country how big of a problem is police officers abusing their firearms?  This isn't TV man.  Most police officers go their entire career without discharging their fire arm anywhere other than the practice range.  The UK isn't that different from the US.  Yes criminals have guns in the US but there are not widespread street battles with police on a daily basis.

http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2008/07/grand_jury_irish.html

This example shows a man a few years ago who was shot by a police officer. The man was unarmed, mentally ill, and was only guilty of knocking on people's doors at night. Yet he was shot to death. Tell me what's fair about that.

[Goldwater]

I support the right of cops to keep and bear arms.

[Lief 🗽]

There are seriously people who think civilians should legally have guns but police shouldn't? WTF

[Cassius]

Strongly in favour.

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

If we ban handguns, we have sufficient justification to take them away from the police which is the ultimate end goal.

[All Along The Watchtower]

There are seriously people who think civilians should legally have guns but police shouldn't? WTF

Redneck True Leftists

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

If the government has guns, then it can tell us to do whatever it wants and we can't do anything to stop it.

[TJ in Oregon]

Okay maybe in another world where we have super strict gun control that works it wouldn't be a total disaster. But in the US right now, banning police firearms would be a really, really terrible idea.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

There are seriously people who think civilians should legally have guns but police shouldn't? WTF

All this sage is too much for me to handle as well.

[I Will Not Be Wrong]

It's a frivolous question unless we radically change our gun regulations and the number of guns on the streets.  For the time being unless you want some areas of American cities to turn into Escape from New York or Robocop in terms of crime, the cops need to have guns.

Or, we could, y'know, address the root problem of most crime (unemployment and poverty) and preserve the right to keep and bear arms for self defense.

This. If a robber is in my house, I am shooting him/her.

[RosettaStoned]

 The police in big cities with a lot of violent crime (like Chicago) should be allowed to carry fully automatic weapons.

[Link]

I do believe not allowing the police to carry guns is a little extreme, as I don't support banning all guns. But if we implement strict gun control laws, legalize soft drugs and decriminalize hard ones, and loosen immigration restrictions, I could support restricting what kind of guns the police force can carry, at least to the point where they can carry only what a citizen can.

Why?  Out of all the problems in our country how big of a problem is police officers abusing their firearms?  This isn't TV man.  Most police officers go their entire career without discharging their fire arm anywhere other than the practice range.  The UK isn't that different from the US.  Yes criminals have guns in the US but there are not widespread street battles with police on a daily basis.

http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2008/07/grand_jury_irish.html

This example shows a man a few years ago who was shot by a police officer. The man was unarmed, mentally ill, and was only guilty of knocking on people's doors at night. Yet he was shot to death. Tell me what's fair about that.

One guy YEARS ago.  There are 330 million people in America.  Every once in awhile just due to the law of averages something unfortunate happens to one of them.  I don't think that is an indication that the police are routinely misusing firearms in a widespread fashion.  I enjoyed living in a countries where the police didn't carry fire arms but I would not put that on my top 20 list of things that need to be fixed in America.

[Redalgo]

Without more education on the current organization and policies of police forces in the United States I really do not have much to base an opinion on. The impression I've got for now though is police should be using non-lethal weapons instead of their conventional counterparts, in addition to having minimally obtrusive monitoring devices in place on vehicles and officers alike adequate for documenting what occurs during confrontations. Handguns really ought to be reserved for firefights initiated by perps, though I do not object to each officer having one with them for ease of access, with all other lethal weaponry reserved for use by SWAT units also overseen with monitoring devices.

Perhaps it varies a lot from one place to another in the country, but in my community it appears that the police are very responsible with their weapons whereas I have been here at home when someone stoned got caught for a traffic violation and tried to kill the cop pursuing him through the adjacent field with an assault rifle (eventually surrendering after fleeing to a wooded creek bed and later reemerging without his clothes or weapon), and a paranoid neighbor fired on police and settled into a half-day siege unprovoked when they were just trying to approach the door to ask a few questions. It is not to say police are never abusive, of course, but sometimes peaceful resolutions are elusive and public safety seems to warrant a bit hard power applied by law enforcement agencies.