For those of you not familiar with the variations between policing systems: some countries (Mexico) have police/military carrying assault rifles in public places; in the 48 states, police usually carry pistols; and in the UK, many police don’t carry guns.
As you may aware, people in the American Empire, including many in the imperial government, routinely profess that popular gun ownership and the non-criminal use of same is a human right, which is recognized by the written constitution. However, putting aside the gross cases (e.g. District of Columbia, New York City) where the elected officials and police forces ignore this, this statement is false:
- If you tell a police officer that you have a gun, you will get shot (e.g. Philando Castile)
- If you carry a gun anywhere near a police officer or service member, you will be thrown in prison (e.g. Nicholas Roske)
- If the police think you have a gun at home and are mentally ill in some way, they will try to arrest you, to the point of chasing you into your home and shooting you (e.g. Bryan Coupal)
As you can see, these mechanics/actions by law enforcement (the royal/privileged class) effectively ban ordinary citizens from possessing/carrying guns, despite all written and oral proclamations.
We should remember that law enforcement and the word/letter of the law are not the same: if a citizen steals from another, but the victim doesn’t report it, then the police never get involved. Therefore to say “you can have a gun at home and not go to prison” doesn’t implicate law enforcement: even if guns are directly banned, if the police don’t know you have one, they only way they’re going to find out is a general sweep/search of large amounts of property. The same would be true of beating your wife, holding a stash of cocaine, urinating in public with no one around, torturing animals in your backyard, etc.