The Second Ammendment Lobby and Police Safety

[Kiwigrunt]

Well they certainly don't help reduce the tension when they are dressed like that.

I too have thought for some time (and still do to an extent) that police are often too militarised in appearance. However, I read an article (by a cop) refuting this and making comparisons with other occupations. I can't find the article but he made a fair point. Look at how fire-fighters are dressed, or even construction workers. So those excessive looking kit-outs would be consistent with our general risk- and litigation adversity, and associated 'need' to wrap our employees up in as much protective gear as possible.

[TheCurmudgeon]

I too have thought for some time (and still do to an extent) that police are often too militarised in appearance. However, I read an article (by a cop) refuting this and making comparisons with other occupations. I can't find the article but he made a fair point. Look at how fire-fighters are dressed, or even construction workers. So those excessive looking kit-outs would be consistent with our general risk- and litigation adversity, and associated 'need' to wrap our employees up in as much protective gear as possible.

True, but there are less threatening ways to design protective equipment. I remember a few years back the New Jersey Highway Patrol had to change their uniforms because their high leather boots and grey uniforms made them look like storm troopers.

On the flip side, they were the uniforms that most girls wanted their dates to be dressed in.

http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/wann...f0bc4838f.html

I can remember way, way back in the 1980s when there were studies done on what effects colors had on people. For some reason pink made them calm. We then painted our drunk tank pink. (I was an enlisted MP in those days). We made decisions on this an other things based on psychology - based on how the public would perceive us. We wanted to be seen as an allies, not an adversary. I guess those days are long gone.

[TheCurmudgeon]

Let me throw out another hypothesis. I will call this the "roller coaster" hypothesis. People in the US have pretty much everything they need and most of what they want. If they don't they have no one to blame but themselves. They are secure. They have no realistic threats.

This condition is antithetical to the human condition. We have developed to be able to deal with challenges. We have "fight or flight" capabilities built into us. Now, for a long time we have found outlets for this need for the fear of a near death experience. Scary movies and roller coasters. "The Walking Dead" is very popular. In the end, it is a story of survival at a very animal level. But eventually all that fails to satisfy. So we begin to create the chaos that we need to feel alive. We create a conflict between the police and the citizenry that really has no substance other than the feeling that we are doing something that is life-or-death and is important. It is the civilian equivalent to what a Soldier feels in combat, something that has been idealized in the public eye in the last twelve years, but only a very limited portion of the population has really felt.

OK, I may be nuts, but I thought I would throw it out there.

[Dayuhan]

Let me throw out another hypothesis. I will call this the "roller coaster" hypothesis. People in the US have pretty much everything they need and most of what they want. If they don't they have no one to blame but themselves. They are secure. They have no realistic threats.

This condition is antithetical to the human condition. We have developed to be able to deal with challenges. We have "fight or flight" capabilities built into us. Now, for a long time we have found outlets for this need for the fear of a near death experience. Scary movies and roller coasters. "The Walking Dead" is very popular. In the end, it is a story of survival at a very animal level. But eventually all that fails to satisfy. So we begin to create the chaos that we need to feel alive. We create a conflict between the police and the citizenry that really has no substance other than the feeling that we are doing something that is life-or-death and is important. It is the civilian equivalent to what a Soldier feels in combat, something that has been idealized in the public eye in the last twelve years, but only a very limited portion of the population has really felt.

OK, I may be nuts, but I thought I would throw it out there.

I think you're right. It's the only explanation I can think of for the omniphobia that seems so pervasive in America.

It is of course true that a skilled and experienced shooter can wreak havoc with almost any sort of firearm. What makes so many people so nervous about what are being called "assault weapons" is that they are uniquely suited to allowing the relatively unskilled and inexperienced shooter to achieve the same result. That results in people pushing for control of such weapons out of fear, which in turn results in people accumulating more of them in the fear that they will be controlled. Where that goes I'm really not sure...

[120mm]

Let me throw out another hypothesis. I will call this the "roller coaster" hypothesis. People in the US have pretty much everything they need and most of what they want. If they don't they have no one to blame but themselves. They are secure. They have no realistic threats.

This condition is antithetical to the human condition. We have developed to be able to deal with challenges. We have "fight or flight" capabilities built into us. Now, for a long time we have found outlets for this need for the fear of a near death experience. Scary movies and roller coasters. "The Walking Dead" is very popular. In the end, it is a story of survival at a very animal level. But eventually all that fails to satisfy. So we begin to create the chaos that we need to feel alive. We create a conflict between the police and the citizenry that really has no substance other than the feeling that we are doing something that is life-or-death and is important. It is the civilian equivalent to what a Soldier feels in combat, something that has been idealized in the public eye in the last twelve years, but only a very limited portion of the population has really felt.

OK, I may be nuts, but I thought I would throw it out there.

I diametrically disagree. We have an over-centralized, out of control, federal government which is rapidly sucking up more than its share of tax without accountability. While local governance dies on the vine. If more Americans WERE frightened, things would be better.

The government is in danger of losing its legitimacy altogether, both central AND local.

And Europe is dead. It will take time for the math to catch up to them, but what is happening in the hinterlands in the EU will catch up to them later.

[Stan]

I diametrically disagree. We have an over-centralized, out of control, federal government which is rapidly sucking up more than its share of tax without accountability. While local governance dies on the vine. If more Americans WERE frightened, things would be better.

The government is in danger of losing its legitimacy altogether, both central AND local.

And Europe is dead. It will take time for the math to catch up to them, but what is happening in the hinterlands in the EU will catch up to them later.

Hey Drew, you pirate (or what is me the pirate ? )

You like turn up and just create Sierra

Still hanging out in Estonia. May be cold, but a whole lot easier to use a firearm.

Regards, Stan