It's true that a lot of Americans own guns, but not true that most Americans are heavily armed. Sure, it's common to see a pickup truck with a gunrack across the back window, often with a hunting rifle or 2 on it. But that is not heavily armed, and doesn't represent most Americans.

My family owns a lot of guns. They're kept in a locked safe, unloaded, and separate from any bullets. They are only used for taking out to a firing range to shoot at paper targets, and that is the only intended use. It's like a weekend hobby. My family don't carry guns around with them. That's how it is almost across the board.

The fact that some criminals are armed is no reason to have your average beat cop armed. The average encounter by a beat cop is with an unarmed person, in a nonviolent situation. If there is any need for armed police that need to be called in to respond, then a special weapons and tactics (SWAT) unit can be called in. In most cases currently, that requires exceptional circumstances. I'm not opposed to disarming all beat cops and anyone whose job is to patrol, provided those units have a SWAT unit on duty, not patrolling as backup they can call in.

Sounds a lot like the UK system, AFAIK.

I'm not saying the UK system is perfect, but it sounds a damn fair bit more efficient at not killing non-violent criminals that what we currently have in the US.



Also, ong. If you haven't watched the John Oliver video that was posted, here, I think you should. He's making almost the same argument you have made about the system being orchestrated to sow division and keep us divided. And he swears a lot.
Grade A material. It is severely lacking in any direction of what to do now about the problem, but states the problem with more depth than anything I've seen in a single location, yet.