Question of the Week:

[asterroc]

Should college police officers carry guns?

Discuss.

Comments

[fireaphid.livejournal.com]

- I was under the impression that to use a taser, one must be particularly close to the tase-ee, and the benefit of a gun is that one can shoot from a distance without endangering oneself. I think tasers are easily replaceable by special training in disarming someone, whereas guns are not.

- I really think that preparing every campus for a school shooting is ridiculous. Whoever is proposing that must not see that having guns on campus is inherently more likely to hurt someone than the remote possibility of a school shooting; I can imagine that if every cop on campus had a gun, it would be likely that they'd shoot someone because they mistakenly thought they were dangerous. (I recall an incident in New York when a cop shot a man as he took a candy bar out of his pocket because the cop thought it was a gun.)

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

According to Wikipedia, the maximum range of a taser is 35ft. This is less than a handgun AFAIK, but a taser is still a ranged weapon, not melee.