Your first sentence in this paragraph is completely contradictory. You don't sound like someone who is willing to debate. You sound like someone with a very closed mind.
I am willing to debate if someone comes up with something worth debating.
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Have you heard of the knockout game? Bad things happen to good people all the time at the hands of others. In the event me or my family become a target, I want to have the means to defend myself against others with weapons
Yes I've heard of the knockout game, I took a report involving a victim. Based on what you're saying, because there's a possibility that someone might assault you, you deserve the right to carry around a lethal weapon? Even though the possibility is less than 1%, it makes sense that you should have the ability to take a life based on your state of mind at the time of the incident without proper training or knowledge of how to handle that situation? I'll tell you this, someone takes a swing at you, you draw down and kill him, you're going to prison. Would that be in the best interest of your family? You going to prison because you were given a gun, killed someone when you thought you were in the right, and depriving your wife and kids of a father for many years?
You know the hardest part about my job? Making that arrest, when the person you know, deep down, is a good person. Things just escalated and "the knife was right there" or "I was afraid so I grabbed a bat."
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How many cases have their been where cops shot people under questionable circumstances? Jonathan Ferrell is a recent example. Even cops with proper training are not immune to making mistakes. Does that mean cops should start using rubber bullets?
There's a reason why a small percentage of the population is capable of becoming law enforcement. This job is not for everyone.
The difference between LE and a civilian with a CCW, before someone else brings it up, is we're trained to address all kinds of situations and adapt to new ones. I carry everywhere I go because I know that if something goes down I will react. I won't freeze, I won't make an irrational decision. I cannot say the same for a person that has NEVER been a situation like that before but someone has the right to carry around a lethal weapon.
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Maybe an answer would be that people with a CCW should have to have psych evaluations? I wouldn't be adverse to that. The same kind of psych evaluations law enforcement officers have to go through. Another possibility might be a stricter standard than the "reasonable person" standard for deadly force.
I had no problem with the system. You go in front of the Sheriff and say you need a CCW because you're afraid of the boogeyman, you aren't getting a CCW. You go in front of the sheriff and say that you're a public figure or have a different legitimate reason to fear for your safety and you get it.
Another interesting thing that we're (I haven't personally) running into now is all current CCWs. Such as agriculture and weird departments have CCW. People that aren't trained adequately, but think that because they have a gun they have the same capabilities as LE. So when 3 of us have one dude, holding a knife, at gun point and we see a plain clothes civilian draw a gun, what then? Should we stop to ask him if he has his CCW?
