Do the police in America need firearms?

palm 1 said:
I think they should be issued with Tickling sticks . It’s virtually impossible to fight back whilst being tickled enabling the officers to make the arrest with minimum danger to both themselves and the offender . It would also introduce some fun and laughter into these dark times.
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Need to be careful, thats how Ken Dodd's Dad's Dog Died
 


Get Into Em said:
I always say similar. The idiotic gun laws are massively to blame for the amount of police shootings.

However, surely there's a link to racism if we're both using this argument as to why there's so many police shootings, as a higher percentage of white people in the US own guns than black people. 36% of white people to 24% of black people in 2017. 50% of white men own a gun. Despite this, the rate that black people killed by police officers is considerably higher than white people: 35 per 1 million of black people are killed by police shootings, 14 per 1 million of white people are killed by police shootings. 36% of white people own a gun, compared to 15% of Hispanics, almost double the amount of Hispanic people per 1 million are killed by police officers compared to white people. Links at the bottom for these stats. There's definitely a link to race mate.

Every single person they speak to/arrest could potentially be carrying a firearm, no wonder they're jumpy as fuck.

As you say, they need more training. I'd hazard a guess if you put a US Marine into an American Police Officer's shoes they wouldn't be as jumpy as the vast majority.

www.pewresearch.org

1. The demographics of gun ownership

Understanding gun ownership in America is not as simple as knowing who does and does not own a gun. Some Americans who don’t personally own guns live with
www.pewresearch.org www.pewresearch.org

www.statista.com

Police shootings: rate by ethnicity U.S. 2024 | Statista

The rate of fatal police shootings in the United States shows large differences based on ethnicity.
www.statista.com www.statista.com
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Whilst there clearly is racism within US police, using figures for each race holding guns and comparing to them percent of race killed isnt exactly helpful to the argument. I dont know the exact figures but id imagine there are a whole lot more white Americans who have guns for hunting and never just have them on their person when going to the shops or a night out (wrongly there will be all races that do this though).

A better comparison would be to look at the gun ownership, legal and illegal in certain cities or boroughs and compare those stats with the stats for the same area, using the whole of the country will surely give skewed figures.

If you are a police officer in an area where a high percentage of people of all races are carrying then surely theyll be a lot more trigger happy.

Like I say though they do have issues with racism within the police and I expect they also have issues with police just thinking anyone from a certain area will be carrying so its always a huge worry.
 
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FoldingStars said:
Whilst there clearly is racism within US police, using figures for each race holding guns and comparing to them percent of race killed isnt exactly helpful to the argument. I dont know the exact figures but id imagine there are a whole lot more white Americans who have guns for hunting and never just have them on their person when going to the shops or a night out (wrongly there will be all races that do this though).

A better comparison would be to look at the gun ownership, legal and illegal in certain cities or boroughs and compare those stats with the stats for the same area, using the whole of the country will surely give skewed figures.

If you are a police officer in an area where a high percentage of people of all races are carrying then surely theyll be a lot more trigger happy.

Like I say though they do have issues with racism within the police and I expect they also have issues with police just thinking anyone from a certain area will be carrying so its always a huge worry.
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This is correct, the logic used there (comparing percentage of gun owners to percentage of people killed by cops) is seriously flawed as like you say, the vast majority of gun owners would never find themselves in a violent stand off with police which obviously massively increases your chances of being shot dead. Like it or not, the small percentage that do so are massively disproportionately represented by young black men, which, in turn, results in young black men being disproportionately killed by the police (in terms of population percentage).

In fact, when statistics are used correctly, it's actually white people who are disproportionately killed by the US cops.
 
squavers said:
This is correct, the logic used there (comparing percentage of gun owners to percentage of people killed by cops) is seriously flawed as like you say, the vast majority of gun owners would never find themselves in a violent stand off with police which obviously massively increases your chances of being shot dead. Like it or not, the small percentage that do so are massively disproportionately represented by young black men, which, in turn, results in young black men being disproportionately killed by the police (in terms of population percentage).

In fact, when statistics are used correctly, it's actually white people who are disproportionately killed by the US cops.
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I mentioned this when BLM marches started, there will be certain people who are racist, sadly this is just now a fact of life, we can do everything possible to educate people on why this is wrong and hope they change but the bigger issue I think is social prejudice.

I don't know certain areas in USA but in Sunderland if the police had 2 calls both the exact same that a house party was blasting music at 2am one is in Southwick and the other is in South Bents, sadly without even thinking the police will automatically be more wary of the call to the address in Southwick as it has a reputation and a history. It doesn't matter who the call is against human nature will already have resulted in an opinion already being created.

Now in America if you add in the mistrust of police in the mix then sadly its a deadly concoction with no easy way out. I'd love know know the figures of lower income areas of a city in America v higher, no mention of race as I'm sure that would show the issues much better than everyone trying to tar everyone as racist.
 
squavers said:
This is correct, the logic used there (comparing percentage of gun owners to percentage of people killed by cops) is seriously flawed as like you say, the vast majority of gun owners would never find themselves in a violent stand off with police which obviously massively increases your chances of being shot dead. Like it or not, the small percentage that do so are massively disproportionately represented by young black men, which, in turn, results in young black men being disproportionately killed by the police (in terms of population percentage).

In fact, when statistics are used correctly, it's actually white people who are disproportionately killed by the US cops.
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That doesn't fit the narrative tho, facts are irrelevant. The narrative being pushed by the far far left in the USA and the 'useful idiots' on here is that police are all inherently racist and need disarming and abolishing as they are a symbol of white privilige. They do not give a shit about the communities plagued by these criminals. They do not give a shit if a white policeman shoots a white person as they cannot use that to further their agenda to divide and destroy society.
 

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