Ampersand said:
Do you think having a gun of his own would have helped that situation.......he's still just as shot. The gun was the problem in that situation not the solution.
[sub]I will say outright that I would like to keep this respectful and civilized. I will agree not to troll in this argument.[/sub]
If the officer has a gun, then that means he's been trained to the point that he can kill the assailant first and protect himself. While somebody still dies in this mess, an officer is trained to, when the situation has degraded as far as it can, neutralize a threat when necessary. No amount of training and skill can make a law officer "good enough" to prevent a dangerous criminal from using deadly force. Any police officer will tell you that a firearm is only used as the absolute last resort. Otherwise, the officer is relieved.
The point is: if you
outlaw guns, then only
outlaws will have guns. Even if you were to ban them in their entirety, you're only stopping law-abiding citizens from getting them. Criminals, on the other hand, will most likely get their iron from the black market anyways. Removing firearms from society does not remove the urge to kill. Whether you are shot, smothered, stabbed, severely beaten, intentionally run down by a vehicle, burned, or poisoned, you are not any less dead from one means or another. If a person wants you dead, they
will find a way to make it happen.
If you're defending their non combatant roles, that's fine they can keep doing all the humanitarian and relief work they like and that's brilliant. Why do they need to be armed to do that? The short answer is they don't. They don't need weapons to do any of those things.
They don't usually carry their weapons on them unless they are in hostile territory. For example: when the US Marines and the National Guard were in New Orleans evacuating people in 2005, only a handful of them, mostly MPs, were carrying a handgun and that's only if there was armed unrest. But your typical service man/woman wasn't packing any heat. The only people that carry weapons are the ones for protection and only when necessary (mostly for political reasons because the civilians would also be unnerved by seeing an assault rifle). But the men and women who are running the radio lines, mixing the concrete, directing traffic, setting up medical tents, and administering the penicillin are not carrying weapons.
However, if you are in Afghanistan or some hostile province of Africa and are building a road or providing medical services for humanitarian effort, it would be suicide not carry a rifle and have an armed squad with you. Yes, the people going there know they are in danger, but at the same time, you can't continue to aid the refugees and impoverished and ill when you're dead.
Hard Fact: There are people that want you dead even if you are doing things to help the common good. You can look at that any way you want, but the fact of the matter is, being an unarmed pacifist or an Atheist isn't going to protect you from being killed in the name of somebody's god with a bomb or an AK or knife or anything else. There are people that want you dead simply because you
exist.
We don't live in a Utopia that's true. Guns don't help that situation, they make it a lot worse. I can talk my way out of most hostile situations and if it does turn violent i'm experienced enough (in most cases) to make sure no one gets hurt. However if someone pulls a weapon it changes everything, from an unfortunate situation to a fatal one. I don't have the option to try and protect this dangerous nut from himself, I have to finish him fast before he can hurt someone else and in doing so run the risk of killing or seriously injuring the poor bastard. Thus forcing me to become something I hate.
I agree. My response is: Unless you're really fucked up in the head, nobody ever enjoys taking another person's life. But there is a difference from protecting yourself in a situation that (beyond your control) has gone terribly wrong, and going out looking to make trouble. While it is best to avoid violence in any situation, there are times where you, regardless of how good you are, cannot avoid having to protect yourself from a violent person intending to do harm to you or others.
