> "Do you really want every speeding pull-over to become a wild-west situation? Maybe your kids are in the car!"

Why would every speeding pull-over become a wild-west situation? If possessing a gun is a right, then mere possession is no reason to suspect criminality is afoot.

▲ Barbing 10 hours ago | parent [-]

What if you assume 1 in 100 are going to be dangerous? Only rarely does the driver say “I’m not going back to jail!“ when they have warrants out.

If you inspect rollercoasters I figure you could probably be pretty lackadaisical on the average inspection. If you don’t take each one deadly seriously though and there’s no way of knowing when it’s important to, maybe it comes flying off the track, so you follow your checklist each and every time without exception.

(So glad I’m not employed to or in a position where I need to own weapons.)

▲ skinfaxi 10 hours ago | parent [-]

When in enemy territory, the military looks at civilian populations as potential enemy combatants. Police are not supposed to view everyone this way as they are in their communities and not enemy territory.

▲ Barbing 10 hours ago | parent [-]

It’s both unfortunate police are trained with videos of cops approaching motorists and getting filled with bullets, and unfortunate those are real situations. I wish there were a way to guarantee officer safety so you didn’t have to tell them “domestic violence incidents and traffic stops should scare you” (most dangerous police situations IIRC).

You reminded me of a salient line in BSG:

  “There’s a reason you separate the military and the police. One fights the enemy of the state, the other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people.”

-Adama, Battlestar Galactica

	▲	skinfaxi 9 hours ago \| parent [-]
		That is indeed what I had in mind when writing my comment!