With gun sales in Ferguson soaring by between 525 and 700 percent according to one discussion in the Washington Post and police apparently warning civilians to get a gun before the verdict is announced, it is useful to look at how police officers generally feel about gun ownership. PoliceOne.com, the largest private organization of active and retired police with over 450,000 members (380,000 active duty and 70,000 retired), conducted a survey of its members in March 2013. Here are some of its results that are relevant to the discussion. Some other survey data are available here.
The War On Guns: Arming Yourself Against Gun Control Lies
More Guns, Less Crime (University of Chicago Press, 3rd ed, 2010)
Straight Shooting: Firearms, Economics and Public Policy
Denied a Chance: How Gun Control helped a stalker murder my husband
Freedomnomics, see Chapter 4 for a general overview of the economics of crime
Dumbing Down the Courts: How Politics Keeps the Smartest Judges Off the Bench
[…] PoliceOne, which has a membership of about 450,000 active and retired police officers, found last year that 76 percent of its members believe legally armed citizens are either extremely or very important to stopping crime. Over 91 percent of members “support the concealed carry of firearms by civilians who have not been convicted of a felony and/or not been deemed psychologically/medically incapable.” This is a less stringent standard than exists in most right-to-carry states. […]
[…] police largely agree with Noble.When Policeone the largest private organization of police officers in the US with over 450000 officers asked its […]
[…] the largest private organization of police officers, surveyed its 450,000 members in March 2013. Ninety one percent of respondents expressed support for relatively liberal concealed handgun […]