Police Officers - Why They Shouldn't Be Allowed to Carry Firearms

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Why Police Officers Shouldn’t be Allowed to Carry Firearms By Sai Avuthu Police officers are law enforcers who are employed by the government. Their whole purpose is to ensure a crime free society and bring justice to criminals who disobey the law. Essentially, they represent peace. However, carrying firearms, weapons of killing and destruction, is the exact opposite of peace. Although police officers stand for peace, there are many countries where people view police not as the hero but as the villain. Even in safe, developed countries like Canada and the United States, acts of police misconduct have occurred. For these reasons, police officers should not be allowed to carry firearms. Eliminating guns won’t eliminate police misconduct; however it will take some power away from them but that can be good because they will also be gaining power this way. It sounds confusing but when people see a man with a gun, no matter what side of the law he is on, they will get intimidated and possibly fear him. Taking away this gun will give that man less power, but he will also gain the people’s respect. For a society with police and people to coexist peacefully without conflict, weapons should not be involved. This way, less crime will occur and police will be respected more. A real life example of this perfect world is England today. In England, police do not carry firearms. England also has one of the lowest gun homicide rates in the world with 0.07 intentional homicides committed with a firearm per 100,000 inhabitants in 2010 compared to the 3.0 in the United States which is 40 times higher. Could these 2 facts be related? Most likely, yes. This brings me back to my point earlier about police officers gaining respect. In countries like Russia, where police brutality and corruption is rampant in the streets, the people do not view the police as people who they can turn

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