criminals don’t feel they MUST have a gun to defend from the police
Criminals know that they won’t win a gunfight against the police. Instead they always flee, and if they’re caught often have their guns on them or in their vehicle.
Most criminals in the US who carry guns do so to kill rival criminals. The police or law-abiding civilians being disarmed wouldn’t change that.
I’m not saying the USA should just disarm its police. I was more pointing out how fucked up gun culture has made it. Most UK gangs don’t have guns. The risk reward balance doesn’t justify them. Any gang that does try to escalate with guns becomes the focus of a LOT of police attention.
Sure, that increased attention probably makes a difference, but ‘gun culture’ is not the reason US police forces often seem to do a mediocre job investigating gang vs gang killing. Nor is having guns what makes the killings happen. It’s exactly the other way around. They have the guns in order to kill their gang opposition. If you could magically un-invent guns they would be using other tool to do it because the numerous other societal problems which created the environment of desperation hadn’t been solved.
Criminals know that they won’t win a gunfight against the police. Instead they always flee, and if they’re caught often have their guns on them or in their vehicle.
Most criminals in the US who carry guns do so to kill rival criminals. The police or law-abiding civilians being disarmed wouldn’t change that.
I’m not saying the USA should just disarm its police. I was more pointing out how fucked up gun culture has made it. Most UK gangs don’t have guns. The risk reward balance doesn’t justify them. Any gang that does try to escalate with guns becomes the focus of a LOT of police attention.
Sure, that increased attention probably makes a difference, but ‘gun culture’ is not the reason US police forces often seem to do a mediocre job investigating gang vs gang killing. Nor is having guns what makes the killings happen. It’s exactly the other way around. They have the guns in order to kill their gang opposition. If you could magically un-invent guns they would be using other tool to do it because the numerous other societal problems which created the environment of desperation hadn’t been solved.