The guns the gun nuts own today are pretty much the same as the ones they owned 20 years ago, with the same size magazines firing the same ammo then as they do now. The only difference is, they own a lot more of them today than they did then.
Does this matter, or justify the SWAT going full-on Seal Team Six on civilians? FUCK NO.
Why? Because even with the large jump in the number of military-style rifles sold in the past decade, the crime rate has fallen by almost HALF: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/05/07/181998015/rate-of-u-s-gun-violence-has-fallen-since-1993-study-says
"Firearm-related homicides dropped from 18,253 homicides in 1993 to 11,101 in 2011," according to a report by the federal , "and nonfatal firearm crimes dropped from 1.5 million victimizations in 1993 to 467,300 in 2011.
There were seven gun homicides per 100,000 people in 1993, the says, which dropped to 3.6 gun deaths in 2010. The study relied in part on data from the .
"Compared with 1993, the peak of U.S. gun homicides, the firearm homicide rate was 49 percent lower in 2010, and there were fewer deaths, even though the nation's population grew," according to the Pew study. "The victimization rate for other violent crimes with a firearm—assaults, robberies and sex crimes—was 75 percent lower in 2011 than in 1993."
All of that is good news — but many Americans don't seem to be aware of it. In a survey, the Pew Research Center found that only 12 percent of Americans believe the gun crime rate is lower today than it was in 1993; 56 percent believe it's higher.
And, just as it's been for decades, rifles of ALL sorts account for somewhere around 300 murders/year, vs the 6000+ that are done by handguns, and the couple thousand done with shotguns.
Do we need SWAT teams today? Yes; there will always be events where specialized units are required. Do we have to arm every officer with the same battle gear the US Marines fielded in Fallujah, when they spend 90% of their time issuing speeding tickets? No.
The police have NO justification for increasing their firepower in the way they have. The more "toys" they have at their disposal, the more willing they'll be to use them. On us. As they say, when you have a hammer in your hand, everything starts to look like a nail.
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