3 ms·

Police in the US do not have a duty to protect: many US citizens who live in rural or poor areas essentially only have self-defense means to protect themselves

by cwkoss 7y ago

Police in the US do not have a duty to protect: many US citizens who live in rural or poor areas essentially only have self-defense means to protect themselves as police response times can be hours if they show up at all. I'd love for our society to reach a place where all citizens can feel safe without owning guns, but we are such a large country with a lot of racial and economic imbalances remaining - I fear this is quite a long ways off.

EdwardDiego 7y ago
> we are such a large country with a lot of racial and economic imbalances remaining The sheer amount of handguns also won't help people feel safe either. It's a damn intractable problem, a sorta prisoner's dilemma about who disarms first, or if at all.
- splintercell 7y ago
  The whole gun debate is like people talking about how they should ban all the cars and everyone should use public transit. It makes sense for urban population to think about banning all cars and only using public transit, but it's insane for rural population to consider that. The urban population hasn't owned a car in generations, so it doesn't even make sense to them why anyone would own a car. Most Europeans are urbanites, and have banned cars for over half a century, so they can't make sense why Americans are so hard set on their cars and give weird suggestions about how getting rid of cars vs public transportation is a prisoner's dilemma.
  - hello_marmalade 7y ago
    Hah, interesting to see an analogy I've made before to explain different situations. This is accurate. The US is huge. A lot of European nations could quite literally fit inside of one of our states, with room left over. Hell some could fit inside of Los Angeles county. We're also not ethnically or culturally homogeneous, which are the reasons why we have so many issues that Europeans consider 'solved'.

3 ms·

Police in the US do not have a duty to protect: many US citizens who live in rural or poor areas essentially only have self-defense means to protect themselves

by cwkoss 7y ago

EdwardDiego 7y ago
> we are such a large country with a lot of racial and economic imbalances remaining The sheer amount of handguns also won't help people feel safe either. It's a damn intractable problem, a sorta prisoner's dilemma about who disarms first, or if at all.
- splintercell 7y ago
  The whole gun debate is like people talking about how they should ban all the cars and everyone should use public transit. It makes sense for urban population to think about banning all cars and only using public transit, but it's insane for rural population to consider that. The urban population hasn't owned a car in generations, so it doesn't even make sense to them why anyone would own a car. Most Europeans are urbanites, and have banned cars for over half a century, so they can't make sense why Americans are so hard set on their cars and give weird suggestions about how getting rid of cars vs public transportation is a prisoner's dilemma.
  - hello_marmalade 7y ago
    Hah, interesting to see an analogy I've made before to explain different situations. This is accurate. The US is huge. A lot of European nations could quite literally fit inside of one of our states, with room left over. Hell some could fit inside of Los Angeles county. We're also not ethnically or culturally homogeneous, which are the reasons why we have so many issues that Europeans consider 'solved'.