On 11/08/2011 7:45 AM, Steven Desjardins wrote:
The danger is always that this sort of thing triggers precisely that sort of government response, with the consent and support of the governed. I can think of how easily Americans adapted to the idea of SWAT teams, and never thought of them as "heavily armed, armoured, and black clad Ninja cops".
Much of that is cultural. You live in a society where many citizens strap on a gun with as little thought as putting on their pants. It's just part of what they wear, and your society is also very big into military and all the trappings that go along with it. When you are carrying a Glock and dress in camo as a matter of course, seeing someone wearing camo and carrying a rifle is no big deal. Where I am, I don't even know if we have anything that would compare to one of your swat teams, but I do know that seeing a bunch of cops running around in bullet proof vests and carrying assault rifles is very uncommon, and is a very big deal.
The first time I saw someone other than a policeman carrying a gun, I was sitting outside of a laundromat in Jackson Wyoming, and a biker wandered past me with a very large pistol in a holster. Before that, I had always felt more or less safe in your country, but after that, I was always a bit wary travelling in the USA.
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