4 ms·

Perhaps the solution to police killings is to disarm the police. The current default--police have weapons and can use them as they see fit--seems not to be work

Perhaps the solution to police killings is to disarm the police. The current default--police have weapons and can use them as they see fit--seems not to be working.

krapp 11y ago
US police have 2nd Amendment rights like anyone else, so that seems unlikely.
- conanbatt 11y ago
  Does it really work that way? Police men should not be able to use any kind of weapon on the job other than the ones they've been assigned.
  - krapp 11y ago
    I'm not a cop or a lawyer, but I can imagine a situation in which people could be expected to sometimes shoot at the cops but the cops weren't allowed to shoot back would meet with a supreme court challenge sooner or later.
rhino369 11y ago
That would never work with the amount of gun ownership in America. People wield guns against cops hundreds if not thousands of times a year. Imagine if criminals knew the cops wouldn't have a gun. This is a problem with the gun violence issue as a whole. The use of guns is absurdly high across the board.
branchan 11y ago
Do you think this is actually a viable solution given how easy it is for somebody to obtain a firearm in the US?
drallison 11y ago
Some of the HN comments have observed that it's not only the police that need to be disarmed, it is the populace as a whole. Gun violence seems to be so deeply ingrained into the American psyche that the Congress has found it necessary to pass a law preventing the Center for Disease Control from studying the epidemic of violence. See, for example, http://www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2013/02/gun-violence.aspx http://www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2013/02/gun-violence.as... and elsewhere. People get so worked up about this issue when they fear their guns will be taken away that they will not support anything which will help mitigate the violence. So much for rational thought.

4 ms·

Perhaps the solution to police killings is to disarm the police. The current default--police have weapons and can use them as they see fit--seems not to be work

by drallison 11y ago

Perhaps the solution to police killings is to disarm the police. The current default--police have weapons and can use them as they see fit--seems not to be working.

krapp 11y ago
US police have 2nd Amendment rights like anyone else, so that seems unlikely.
- conanbatt 11y ago
  Does it really work that way? Police men should not be able to use any kind of weapon on the job other than the ones they've been assigned.
  - krapp 11y ago
    I'm not a cop or a lawyer, but I can imagine a situation in which people could be expected to sometimes shoot at the cops but the cops weren't allowed to shoot back would meet with a supreme court challenge sooner or later.
rhino369 11y ago
That would never work with the amount of gun ownership in America. People wield guns against cops hundreds if not thousands of times a year. Imagine if criminals knew the cops wouldn't have a gun. This is a problem with the gun violence issue as a whole. The use of guns is absurdly high across the board.
branchan 11y ago
Do you think this is actually a viable solution given how easy it is for somebody to obtain a firearm in the US?
drallison 11y ago
Some of the HN comments have observed that it's not only the police that need to be disarmed, it is the populace as a whole. Gun violence seems to be so deeply ingrained into the American psyche that the Congress has found it necessary to pass a law preventing the Center for Disease Control from studying the epidemic of violence. See, for example, http://www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2013/02/gun-violence.aspx http://www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2013/02/gun-violence.as... and elsewhere. People get so worked up about this issue when they fear their guns will be taken away that they will not support anything which will help mitigate the violence. So much for rational thought.