I cant go along with this, the "study" uses the terms can,possibly,may, suspicions and some far to often.Tiz all bollocks:laugh: What you have in Merica is too many nutters running around tooled up. The French and Italian police are armed, take a look at the stats. The single biggest difference between all of the countries is the guns that are in the hands of the public, way to many Rambos, crims and nutters with firearms your side of the pond , tiz the fault of the Founding Fathers apparently
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-related_death_rate
Bob
Zackly what 'point' do you think you're making???
PER YOUR LINK:
Homicides by firearms per 100K people:
Brazil: 18.1
Columbia: 27.1
El Salvador: 39.90
Guatamala: 34.38
Honduras: 64.8!!!
Jamaica (mon!)39.40
Swaziland: 37.36
Venezuela: 50.96!!!
USA: 10.64!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Suicides:
Uruguay: 7.03 (pop: 3,429,000)
USA: 6.70 (pop: 320.09 million!!!)
Now, if one takes into account the TOTAL NUMBER OF GUNS supposedly in each of those countries (supposedly there are 310 million guns in the USA) and compares that to the number of citizens in each of those individual countries - there IS NO "gun problem" in the USA!
But, as The Colonel pointed out - that's not the TOPIC we're addressing right now...
...take a look at the stats. The single biggest difference between ALL OF THE COUNTRIES is the guns that are in the hands of the public ("the sight of an armed police officer" not a factor here, I guess), way to many Rambos, crims and nutters with firearms your side of the pond , tiz the fault of the Founding Fathers apparently
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-related_death_rate
My point Larry is there is no correlation between heightened aggressive behaviour and armed police in the civilised world. You guys are on your own with this one,it is my opinion that because of the situation with guns stateside you are witnessing a dog eats dog scenario. You have trigger happy criminals on the streets leaving the police with split second life or death decisions to make.Your list from Brazil to Venezuela is hardly representative of the civilised word (I'm sure they'll all be glad to know you don't consider them part of the civilized world), France ,Italy and a good few more are good examples of an armed Police force that are not regarded as intimidating nor responsible for violent interactions. Most of that report is only relevant to the States and I dont think for one minute any member of the law abiding public stateside would raise a heartbeat at the sight of an armed Police officer, a criminal would. Your officers even have to approach a motorist`s with one hand ready for a draw because they are not sure if they are going to write out a speeding ticket first or end up in a shoot out with a loon.