Captain Nemo
Regular Member
Of the approximately 89,000 law enforcement officers in the U.S. 173 were killed while on duty in 2011. Of those 173, sixty eight were from gunfire. 39% of the total deaths. Based on the population of 89,000 a risk factor of .0764. A risk far below that of farming and many other activities. The death of even one officer killed by gunfire while performing his/her duties is unacceptable, but I think it must be put into perspective.
What is it then that causes such a gun paranoia among law enforcement? Being shot to death is certainly not a pleasant way to die, but neither is burning to death in a car crash, an event that happens daily. An event that for some morbid reason doesn't seem to fill us with undue concern. Maybe something told to me by my brother may explain part of the paranoia. He spent 25 years in law enforcement, county, city, street cop, detective. He said that "when you spend all of your working life dealing with the scum of society you forget that you are only dealing with 10% of society. 90% of society is peace abiding people that mean you no harm, but because of the daily exposure to the scum you begin to be suspicious of society in general. You eventually get into the mind set that the very thought of anyone but you carrying a firearm is frightening". Paranoia being a contageous disease soon migrates into the public, only to be fueled by biased media and anti-gun self interest groups.
What is it then that causes such a gun paranoia among law enforcement? Being shot to death is certainly not a pleasant way to die, but neither is burning to death in a car crash, an event that happens daily. An event that for some morbid reason doesn't seem to fill us with undue concern. Maybe something told to me by my brother may explain part of the paranoia. He spent 25 years in law enforcement, county, city, street cop, detective. He said that "when you spend all of your working life dealing with the scum of society you forget that you are only dealing with 10% of society. 90% of society is peace abiding people that mean you no harm, but because of the daily exposure to the scum you begin to be suspicious of society in general. You eventually get into the mind set that the very thought of anyone but you carrying a firearm is frightening". Paranoia being a contageous disease soon migrates into the public, only to be fueled by biased media and anti-gun self interest groups.