Which Neighbors Have Concealed Weapons Permits? (Redwood City, Ca. publishes list)

[spin]

101. Anyone who works for law enforcement deserves respect ...

just as teachers, firemen and members of the military also do.

So even though you served in another nation's police force, you still get my thanks for your service.

Perhaps if we could turn the clock back and change our gun control laws we would also live in a society where the police did not have to carry firearms. I agree that often the police find themselves in an arms race with the criminal element.

I will content that in the United States police usually do find ways of resolving crises without resorting to the firearms they wear on their side or to the weapons in their police vehicles. Many officers go through their careers without ever having to draw their weapon. Technology has also enabled a police officer to have available less than lethal means of subduing a violent individual.

One major driver of violence in our nation is the sale of illegal drugs and our failed War on Drugs. I feel we should reexamine our drug policies and legalize some drugs such as marijuana.

We are making headway in reducing violent crime.

FBI Data Reveals Steady Decline in Major Crime
| July 25, 2011

WASHINGTON — Crime levels fell across the nation last year, extending a multiyear downward trend with a 5.5 percent drop in the number of violent crimes in 2010. Property crimes fell 2.8 percent, after a 4.6 percent drop the year before.

The latest figures released by the FBI show the lowest level of violent crime since the 1960s. All categories for property crime — including burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft and arson — declined as well.emphasis added

Robbery also declined nationwide — by 9.5 percent in 2010 and 8 percent in 2009 — despite increased unemployment and a grim economic outlook. Experts differ on what could explain the declines, but say economic hardship is a poor indicator for violent crime and a weak one at best for property crime.

"The idea that unemployment breeds crime is a lot more myth than reality," says James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University in Boston. "People don't just lose their jobs and decide their only means of making a living is through crime."
http://www.securitysales.com/channel/vertical-markets/articles/2011/07/fbi-data-reveals-steady-decline-in-major-crime.aspx