View Single Post
Old March 13, 2013, 07:33 AM   #35
MLeake
Senior Member
 
Join Date: November 15, 2007
Location: Outside KC, MO
Posts: 10,128
NoGun,

In no particular order:

1) Thanks for not playing the stereotypical anti, being shrill, or blowing off reasonable answers. That's refreshing.

2) Police have, in addition to handguns (and tasers): body armor; a shotgun and/or rifle in the car; a radio in the car and a radio on their person; help at the other end of the radio, and potentially a lot of help on the way within a minute or two for an "officer needs assistance" call; a maglite, PR-24, or other impact weapon.

(Edit: Depending on the department, the officer may have a partner with him at all times when on duty; in other cases, standard practice for any stop may well be for another officer to automatically drive over preemptively in case backup becomes necessary.)

If the officer, with all those resources, needs all that gear AND still carries a handgun, then why should the rest of us feel that a taser will handle any issue? Granted, the officer is supposed to pursue and apprehend criminals, but at the point when the criminal puts up a fight - that is the same criminal against whom we may have to defend ourselves.

3) Not all tasers have multi-shot capability. Not all tasers will penetrate heavy clothing. The dart type tasers need two good dart points of contact in order to cycle current through the body. Tasers are not non-lethal, either, as they have been known to kill people with heart conditions, cocaine or PCP users, and those in generally poor health at an alarming rate (at least, at an alarming rate for what was supposed to have been a "non-lethal" weapon). Tasers are very limited in range, too. And, in many states, tasers are restricted as heavily as, or even more heavily than, handguns.

(For instance, while there are states like Florida, where with a concealed weapons permit I can carry a handgun, knife, collapsible baton, short barreled shotgun or rifle - assuming I have the stamp for that, taser, pepper spray, etc, there are also states like Tennessee, where it's specifically a "concealed handgun license," and I can only carry a handgun on that permit.)

4) On the Constitutional Rights issue, how strong do you think the First Amendment would remain, if the people allowed their teeth (the Second Amendment) to be pulled? Quite frankly, I WANT the US government to feel at least some trepidation when it considers passing some particularly onerous piece of legislation.

5) Without meaning to sound harsh, who are you to tell me what I need for defense of myself or my family? Are you going to race to our side should an attacker appear? Would you like me to decide what items in your life you really need?

Last edited by MLeake; March 13, 2013 at 07:43 AM.
MLeake is offline  
 
Page generated in 0.02753 seconds with 8 queries