Ban full and semi autos now!!!

[Jim_Jude]

The most logical thing would be for ordinary citizens to, if they choose, carry the same firepower as LEOs--provided they are willing to undergo the same training and screening to root out nutcases (though screening of LEOs is far from problem-free, as shown by current events in LA).

To accept anything less than equal-carry is tantamount to surrendering control over whether one lives or dies to LEOs. As far as I can tell, there are no members of that species who are in any way sufficiently "superior" to merit such abject surrender from taxpaying citizenry.

most of the psych screens that cops need to go through have very little to do with the gun, the main problem is THE BADGE. The power & authority that people don't even realize how corrupting it can be until they have it. Carrying a firearm makes men EQUAL. The Badge, on the other hand, sets them apart.

[Vieux Normand]

most of the psych screens that cops need to go through have very little to do with the gun, the main problem is THE BADGE. The power & authority that people don't even realize how corrupting it can be until they have it. Carrying a firearm makes men EQUAL. The Badge, on the other hand, sets them apart.

In the West, the badge and its precedents go as far back as the divisions of feudal society. Before that, all able-bodied freemen openly carried arms and chieftains were directly elected. The whole "divine-right-of-kings" thing, and the disarming of much of the population, was the result of conversion and is now, in far too many countries, considered the norm.

With present versions of "democracy" being dictated by electoral colleges and first-past-the-post systems where a vested minority can rule a numerical majority, a return to actual democracy is unlikely in the absence of sustained demand by a clear majority of ordinary citizens.

What, one wonders is more contemptible (and more likely to lead to abuses): that there are individuals who want to exercise their pathetic little power-trip via the badge and a duty-belt full of toys, or that much of the rest of the West's citizens continue to surrender their personal sovereignty to such individuals?