Chicago & Policing (new title)

[Cavguy]

I lived in Germany for six years with some of the most restrictive gun laws on Earth. I seem to remember very few gun homicides or gun armed criminal gangs roaming the streets engaging in shootouts. I also remember that every gun incident made national news. Most crimes were done at knifepoint, IIRC.

When we first moved back here to Leavenworth, my wife (who is German) turned on the 10PM local newscast. Five violent murders and a drive-by on that day alone. I was even taken aback, having not been used to that level of violence in Germany.

After being able to walk the streets of almost every major northern European city and town at 2 AM relatively safely, I really wonder how much our devotion to relatively unregulated gun posession is making us safer. I wouldn't have walked the streets of Richmond, VA (my hometown) or most mid-large sized US cities at 2AM.

[120mm]

I lived in Germany for six years with some of the most restrictive gun laws on Earth. I seem to remember very few gun homicides or gun armed criminal gangs roaming the streets engaging in shootouts. I also remember that every gun incident made national news. Most crimes were done at knifepoint, IIRC.

When we first moved back here to Leavenworth, my wife (who is German) turned on the 10PM local newscast. Five violent murders and a drive-by on that day alone. I was even taken aback, having not been used to that level of violence in Germany.

After being able to walk the streets of almost every major northern European city and town at 2 AM relatively safely, I really wonder how much our devotion to relatively unregulated gun posession is making us safer. I wouldn't have walked the streets of Richmond, VA (my hometown) or most mid-large sized US cities at 2AM.

Murder rates have little to do with guns, imo, and more to do with traditions of individual violence and "obedience to the law".

Give US police the power of the polizei, and a populace that will accept that power, and crime rates would plummet.

But if one wants safety, one could volunteer to be locked into a little cage.

[120mm]

Actually, M4s and other rifle caliber carbines are good police tools. They are more accurate than pistols and shotguns, and are handy, intuitive weapons to carry.

They don't over-penetrate any worse than other weapons, as well. Any round capable of killing a human being will over-penetrate, but in fact, pistol rounds over-penetrate worse than 5.56.

What people get hung up on is the way they "look". While an M94 Winchester carbine would "look nicer", while retaining roughly equivalent capabilities, the M4 carbine is more durable and reliable, and has spare part, training and accessory supply chains that are unsurpassed.