[MrLeftHand]

I haven't said, it is a problem. I said that this shows the problem. The problem that a police officer is more afraid for his/hers own safety then actually protecting and serving others. For me this shows why US police is trigger happy. Where they are trained always for the worst, where they always expect the worst. No wonder a lot of them can't tell right from wrong. Also, when you have to deal with mentally ill people, in certain cases for an untrained person might be really hard to identify and know the difference between a person suffering from mental illness, or being high on crystal meth and ready to chew your face off.

If the civil population wouldn't have all these guns and gun crimes wouldn't be the top concern in the country, maybe then the police could change it's training to be more calm and helping in diffusing dangerous situation rather then go in guns blazing.

Not going to say, that having guns is the No. 1 cause, but it certainly makes the whole situation worse.

[08-15]

Oh, come on! It's decision theory, plain and simple. As an officer, I have two options: (1) shoot first, (2) talk to the victim. The cost in case (1) is ZERO (well, actually a couple bullets...) and in case (2) it is somewhat higher, because I run a small risk of dying on duty. Since \epsilon > zero, I shoot until the mag is empty, then empty the spare mag, too.

The values in this line of reasoning change depending on whether the victim has a nuclear bomb, a gun, a knife, bare hands, or nothing at all. The conclusion does not. Any small risk is still bigger than no risk.

It is obvious to me, that reducing the cost to the officer who chooses option (2), by taking guns away from citizens, does not work, because the cost won't become negative. Instead, the cost in case (1) has to be increased, and that means prosecuting trigger happy cops as the murderers they are.

[MrLeftHand]

Decisions are based on experience. If you are trained to expect the worst and you have experience on that, you will decide for the most favourable outcome for yourself. Not to get killed and pull the trigger sooner as the other person, even without the knowledge of him having a gun or not.

And there is a reason why cops became murderers. So instead finding the cause and fixing it, you say that they should go to jail and end of story?

The problem is, that this is how our current prosecution system works and it fails on so many levels. So why do you think it would work on them? It doesn't make the world a better place and there aren't less criminals because of it. Then why do you think there will be less trigger happy cops on the force?

People still commit crimes even with the risk of getting in to jail. Cops will still shoot people, because they will rather go to jail then be dead. Even if there is no gun, it is much safer for them shooting first and asking later.