• Kalash@feddit.ch
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    11 months ago

    when you’re miles outside of law enforcement coverage,

    See, this might be the problem. Now I know America is a big place, But you can drone strike a wedding anywhere on the planet, it feels like your nation should have the ability to enforce it’s laws on it’s own ground without having to rely on individuals wielding firearms. And it’s not like there is a shortage of police funding. They just don’t care about your area in particular. Other places the polices get’s to drive literal tanks/apcs.

    • Mamertine@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      I don’t think you comprehend the vastness and remoteness of the American West.

      There are places where the law enforcement response time is over an hour simply because it takes that long for the one deputy working the county to drive from one side of the country to the other. There’s no point in having more deputies working a county where there are only 2 people living per square mile. Nor is there the finances to hire additional police protection.

      Most of the USA that is not the case, but it is a reality for some places in the lower 48 states. Alaska is that to another level.

      Police funding is a function of city or county, and sometimes state population. Metro area have the funding. Rural places just can’t afford to employ enough police to reduce response time to under 30 minutes.

      • Kalash@feddit.ch
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        11 months ago

        Yes, I alluded to that in the previous comment. But is that really a good argument for everyone to have a firearm? You can make exceptions for specific places. Like, all firearms have to be registered and licenced but in rural areas you can get the required training for free.

        • Mamertine@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          The ultimate issue is the American constitution says Americans get to own guns. In order to change that requires 2/3rds of the states to want to change that.

          As in California with their 39.5 million citizens has the same power to change it as Alaska with their 600,000 citizens.

          The supreme Court of the USA has said the constitutional rights are fairly broad for gun ownership. In theory that’s mostly settled case law so that won’t change short of a miracle.

          We can debate if it’s prudent or not, but it’s unlikely to change here.

          Fwiw, I’m in favor of some reasonable reforms. There’s just no point in pursuing them since it’s in the constitution here.

      • BorgDrone@lemmy.one
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        11 months ago

        There’s no point in having more deputies working a county where there are only 2 people living per square mile.

        How much crime is there in areas with 2 people per 5.17998 square kilometers that you need an AR-15 for self defense? Does the US have bands of roving marauders? Are we talking a Mad Max like scenario?

        If you happen to live in such a place, how many gun fights do you get into in an average week?

        • Mamertine@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          I don’t recall mentioning AR-15s in my response.

          Does the US have bands of roving marauders?

          Not that I’m aware of.

          Are we talking a Mad Max like scenario?

          Nope, anyways that is set in Australia.

    • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Fortunately an unmanned air strike is still considered an unacceptable response to a police assistance request.

      There’s a saying “when seconds count, the police are only minutes away”. That’s a best case scenario and usually only true if you’re in a good neighborhood in the suburbs. The police can take hours to respond to a call, and that’s when you don’t live in the boonies. Rural people need to be able to take care of themselves for the most part.