August 25, 2014 by David K. Sutton
Police Ferocity In Ferguson, And Why Gun Rights Absolutists Are Complicit
It would seem a contradiction for the gun rights absolutists to side with the police in situations like the one in Ferguson, Missouri. But time after time, this is what we see. There is a theory that could explain why police shoot and kill so many Americans compared to other first-world democracies.
Ladd Everitt from the Washington-based advocacy organization, the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, told Business Insider, “We see this as a product of the continuing arms race between law enforcement and civilians that has been going on for decades.”
Everitt said the increasingly sophisticated weaponry being sold to U.S. civilians is forcing police to keep up, with both sides purchasing ever more powerful weapons.
The arms race means “police officers have legitimate fears about the nature of the firepower they are confronting on a daily basis,” he said.
This theory seems quite plausible, and it could also explain the lack of outrage by gun rights absolutists to the ferocity of police actions in Ferguson. Normally they would be vocal about state aggression, but because gun rights absolutists are active participants in this “arms race,” their desire for unfettered access to deadly weaponry overrules one of their stated reasons for owning such hardware. It seems love of gun is more important than a contemporary display of the unbridled power of the state.
If this theory is true, we are talking about a feedback loop where the actions on one side justify the response on the other, going so far as to disregard the original intent of arming one’s self, if the loop is to be maintained.
