Cops just shoot Everybody now, with surprisingly little social resistance

[The Straight Story]

12. I think because some believe only cops are responsible enough to even own a gun

Even though they are just like the rest of us - the badge and fact that the government pays them seems to imbue them with special powers that we don't have when it comes to ownership/use of guns.

Have seen people say seeing a civilian with a gun freaks them out and scares them - when it is more likely that a cop would use one and not go to jail over doing so than a normal person.

We have come to trust only the government and see each other as enemies just waiting to kill each other to the point we don't care if they spy on everything we do. We take what less than 1 percent do and project it onto all others in an attempt to control and abate our fears, which is what the government wants because it helps them to not only increase their powers but makes us more complacent when they do things since they alone are who we believe should protect us (protecting yourself is not something many want, so we label people who want to as nuts/humpers/etc and so on in order to degrade them and avoid actual discussions).

In an us vs them battle the 'us' will lose because we define everyone else as being outside of our personal tent and those people are surely out to get us in some way. We don't mind if the wealthy are protected by people with guns, or government officials, but for the private citizen the best you can hope for is that some cop somewhere will know when your home is being broken into and magically show up at just the right time.

Truly we have lost when the government is our hammer and everyone but our own self is a nail.