To stop a guy with a gun requires an escalation in violence.
That fallacy is the whole thing in a nutshell, right there. A classic example of treating the symptom while ignoring the disease.
I guess you're opposed to police owning guns...too? What, you think we should negotiate with him? Or, worse, bend to his will even though we're armed? What are you...a liberal?
Nice try but you can't just wish truth away by slapping a convenient label on it. This isn't political; it's social psychology; what motivates people.
As far as police having guns (I assume you mean carrying, not 'owning'), I can tell you from subjective experience that the Gardai in Ireland don't carry guns and they're seen as helpful servants rather than "here comes trouble".
Gardai is short for
Garda SÃochána, or "Guardians of the Peace". Notice the word "
peace"? It might just be that when you go looking for trouble you find it, and the same is true of peace. "Be careful what you wish for". All about attitude. More on this below.
Actually, Japan could tell us:
Gun Violence: Virtually a Thing of the Past in Japan
There it is again: Attitude. Perspective. This latter view that holds more respect for both the power of firearms and human life, is what the constant gun-on-gun escalation removes from us. And the more we do it, the farther away we get from those values.
As I posted somewhere else today, even if there's no violence-- suppose you're a gun owner, licensed, legal, trained and responsible, and you go out carrying....
Trouble comes up, you let it be known that you're armed... trouble retreats. Now, even if no shots were fired...
What exactly have you accomplished?
What a stupid comment...pure and simple. What do you THINK I would have accomplished?
Actually I answered my own question in the same post. Those sterling powers of observation again.
Again -- what you've "accomplished" is to perpetuate the silly John Wayne mentality and ensure it stays with us and continues and in your fantasy world at least, requires further and further escalation.
As I said before and I'll say again, that is a dead end. Literally.
What this ultimately comes down to is whether you're concerned about your culture as a whole, or just about numero uno. If it's the latter "every man for himself" attitude, then yes, your best answer probably
is constant escalation through more and more firearms, which begets more and more violence and more and more Newtowns. Just know, if that is your quest, it's finite. A dead end. It may get you through today but it won't get us through tomorrow.