Jordan Hayes wrote:
>So let's talk instead about why we have FAMs in the first
>place, because if you get a badge and a gun and you go looking around at
>everyone as a threat, you WILL shoot someone someday. On the other
>hand, traditional law enforcement emphasizes problem resolution; this is
>the same reason why you don't send in the Marines to a peacekeeping
>mission: the threat is different, the training is different.
>
I suspect they have very little training. Training costs money initially
and more to maintain skills.
For example, when I was a state park ranger we got a fair amount of
firearms training but almost no other training -- like conflict
resolution, hand-to-hand combat, etc.
Now one thing you instantly realize when you wear a gun is that you can't wave it around and make people do what you want them to do, like they do in movies and detective novels. You shoot or you don't take it out in the first place. And when you're trained to shoot, you're trained
to shoot to kill.
So give someone guns and no other training, and they're looking at two choices: shoot or run. I suspect that the Air Marshalls job also drew a bunch of would-be vigilantes: wear a gun...be tough... The rangers attracted two kinds of people: those who liked trees and those who didn't make it in the other law enforcement agencies but got a hard on over wearing a gun. So it was a really schizo force with 1/2 very nice guys and 1/2 aggressive assholes. Of course, there's not much terrorism in the state parks so there wasn't any shooting.
It's otherwise on airplanes.
>Joanna
>
>