“Franklin Zimring … argues that … more people are armed in public and solo patrols make offices go to the gun more quickly than before. … I think Suarez … argued that the reluctance (or inability) of officers to fight has an effect on this, too.“

Yes, wrt solo patrols and inability to fight.

The number of people armed in public is irrelevant; what matters is the likelihood of criminals being armed. Good people being armed poses no danger to cops; if no good people went about armed but all criminals (a small percentage of the population) did, cops would be no less tempted to go for their guns very quickly.

Another factor is the increased willingness of criminals to go for their guns, as compared to back in the day when police routinely got away with summarily executing cop killers they arrested. (“Yes, he surrendered, but then he was shot while trying to escape.” The cop would have told the cop-killer, “I’m going to give you five seconds to start running; then I’m going to shoot you whether you run or don’t.” If they cop-killer didn’t run but faced him, a different excuse for his death would be offered.) Now that cops can’t do that, and the death penalty is rarely applied, and drugs give criminals more courage, criminals are more likely to try to kill the cop.

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Franklin Zimring has a new book out about police shootings in which he argues that, among other things, the reality that more people are armed in public and solo patrols make offices go to the gun more quickly than before. In the wake of the Mesa AZ verdict recently, I think Suarez (among others – like Dave Spaulding I think) argued that the reluctance (or inability) of officers to fight has an effect on this, too. I definitely would not want to be on scene with a gun in my hand when officers rolled up, even if I was no threat to them, just because of the confusion of the situation and the chance that their bad training or tactics could cost me my life (a la Tamir Rice).

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If it comes to needing to put the gun away because the police have shown up and started yelling commands, that thing is hitting the ground from wherever it happens to be at the time, not making nice “please shoot me, scared officer” movements.

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