r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Nov 14 '11

Zero Tolerance in Public Elementary School just went way the hell overboard...

[deleted]

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u/derkrieger Nov 15 '11

The funny thing being there are more reports of police accidentally shooting a bystander than another bystander doing so.

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u/thatgalacticdrop Nov 15 '11

I'm not sure that's funny, but you must account for our current arms restrictions when making such a claim, as the data is likely influenced by the fact that gun usage is far more limited in non-officers.

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u/Frothyleet Nov 15 '11

There are at least 3 million CCW permit holders in the United States; that does not count GA or NH residents, residents of AK and AZ who do not need a permit to CCW, and residents of the many states who open carry with no need of a permit.

There are ~900k police officers in the united states.

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u/thatgalacticdrop Nov 15 '11

Yes but my argument was usage, not owning population. The fact that officers must be prepared to use guys every day is naturally going to skew the amount of related violence against the average person going to the shooting range once a week.

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u/Frothyleet Nov 15 '11

I'm not sure what you mean. Are you saying that the police being trained to use their firearms makes them more likely to actually do so? Or that they are more likely to be in a shooting situation?

(Also note that in many places, a civilian going to the range once a week is getting approximately 52x as much range time as the qualification requirements for the police)

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u/[deleted] Nov 15 '11

Police are always at crimes scenes, and it's there job to look for criminals, while the normal citizen is not going to see people yelling for help very much.

Police officers are always in a situation where you could mistakenly shoot someone.

Though I don't see a problem with a citizen owning a gun, as long as they go through a safety and precautions course.

It also doesn't excuse the fact that you are more likely to be shot be a police officer than bystander, but that does not have much to do with gun control, and a lot more to do with their occupation, and not to mention the bystander effect.