I'm not sure how armed citizenry helps with law enforcement.
People are shot and killed by law enforcement. Sometimes they're shot and killed very quickly, within 30 seconds of an officer arriving on scene.
People who are thought to be armed are often shot and killed by US police. Notice the "thought" there, many people are shot even though they don't have a weapon because law enforcement thinks the person has a gun.
Do you have any examples where an interaction between a citizen and a cop is made better by the presence of a gun on the citizen?
(I guess the strongest challenge to my argument is the presence of MalcolmX)
>Better thought: Do you think a completely unarmed populace is a better idea given how bad police abuse their power?
Well, yes, I do.
The US is heavily armed. The US has a lot of poorly trained, unskilled, abusive police officers.
Gun ownership hasn't made US police any better. If anything it's made them far more lethal - one reason given (by both pro- and anti- gun advocates) for the shocking numbers of people shot and killed by US police each year is the presence of guns in the population.
When a police officer abuses their power I can grind through it, or I can pull a gun and get shot. In most cases getting shot is the worse outcome.
People are shot and killed by law enforcement. Sometimes they're shot and killed very quickly, within 30 seconds of an officer arriving on scene.
People who are thought to be armed are often shot and killed by US police. Notice the "thought" there, many people are shot even though they don't have a weapon because law enforcement thinks the person has a gun.
Do you have any examples where an interaction between a citizen and a cop is made better by the presence of a gun on the citizen?
(I guess the strongest challenge to my argument is the presence of MalcolmX)