PoliceOne's Gun Control Survey: 11 key lessons from officers' perspectives

Hey folks,

Now I know most of you on here do not have a favorable view of police officers / LEOs, but this article speaks, to me, in volumes of how most of them are on our side, despite the fact there are some who are absolute nut-cases. But we're not going to get into that in this thread, folks, as this thread shows some interesting view-points from the police on the 2nd Amendment.

I ran across a rather enlightening bit of information from Policeone. There are a few pages here talking about a recent survey they sent out to some 15,000 or so Police officers.

The poll is on the police officer's view of Federal gun laws, and on how the police view the effectiveness of those laws.

It also has information on how the police view citizens carrying arms.

Here are a couple snippets from the first page Article 1

And when it comes to finding ways to reduce gun violence and large scale shootings, most cops say a federal ban on so-called “assault weapons” isn’t the answer. More than 91 percent of respondents say it would either have no effect or a negative effect in reducing violent crime. This is an overwhelming response by those whose job it is to actually deal with this issue on the front lines.

A full 86 percent feel that casualties would have been reduced or avoided in recent tragedies like Newtown and Aurora if a legally-armed citizen was present (casualties reduced: 80 percent; avoided altogether: 60 percent). For those who chose the option of casualties being avoided altogether, I took this to mean the deterrent effect of a show of force prior to an event would stop a potential predator from carrying out his murderous intent in the first place.

The following info will be from this page: Gra ph page (Note, graphs aren't included in my page, goto the web link above to see the full article)

1.) Virtually all respondents (95 percent) say that a federal ban on manufacture and sale of ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 rounds would not reduce violent crime.

4.) Seventy percent of respondents say they have a favorable or very favorable opinion of some law enforcement leaders’ public statements that they would not enforce more restrictive gun laws in their jurisdictions. Similarly, more than 61 percent said they would refuse to enforce such laws if they themselves were Chief or Sheriff.

And one more:

6.) The overwhelming majority (almost 90 percent) of officers believe that casualties would be decreased if armed citizens were present at the onset of an active-shooter incident.

The articles are very eye-opening, to say the least.

Article links:
Main page to choose the polls
Gra ph page poll of just shy of 30 graphs
Text based article, no pretty graphs

So, have a read through the articles I posted above, and give your feedback and thoughts.

For you anti-gunners, how does this make you feel that the police think armed citizens is a favorable thing?

Stay frosty, my friends.

This is no surprise. Cops know better than anyone that they can't be in all places nor can they always respond in time.

I have had many conversations with cops and my fellow soldiers over the right to arms and most of us agree that an armed American society is preferable for liberty and protection than an unarmed society simply waiting to be culled.

reply to post by Cygnis


Found this awesome video on policeone.com. Sometimes a bat goes a long way

reply to post by cripmeister


Sure sometimes.

And sometimes it doesn't.

But what would citizens do with a bat going against a tyrannical government?

reply to post by Cygnis


I can believe that those are the prevailing views. One night here, late, the kids ran into the living room, telling me someone was outside (side of the house, busy street side) with a really bright light. Well, that being very out of the ordinary, I picked up the pistol, and went out to see what was going on. As it turned out, a cop was there, checking some blood splatter (very small amount) on the sidewalk, where an attempted mugging had apparently taken place earlier. I KNOW the cop saw me, with the pistol. Seeing him, I took it inside, then went back out to see what had happened, which is when he told me about the attempted mugging. We chatted a bit, and I said it was a shame the woman didn't scream or something, as I would have been out there with the gun and the dog. He took that comment as perfectly reasonable, didn't bat an eyelash. He clearly believed that could have helped. As it turned out there wasn't any serious harm, but the cop didn't have issues with an armed citizen being willing to take action in such a case.

Plus, the views they expressed in that survey match the statistics. Most cops have some degree of common sense. Most want less crime, and they understand that armed citizens reduce crime rates. Crooks want easy victims, not armed defense.