Just wondering. For the last year or two we have been hearing that the 2004 expiration of the AWB is responsible for an increase in the number of police officers killed in the line of duty. Now, however, it seems that police deaths are falling--dramatically.

Fatal police shootings have been cut in half, to 11, compared with this time last year. Police deaths overall have declined 39%, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, which tracks the statistic.

The decline represents a stark reversal from 2007, when fatal shootings were up 26%, and 68 officers were shot and killed — including six multiple murders.

But wait--if the return of "assault weapons" (which had never really left--but I suppose I'm nit-picking) was responsible for a dramatic rise in police deaths, how does one explain an even more dramatic decline, while those nasty "assault weapons" are still around?

As it turns out, the International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association claims to have the explanation:

Ed Nowicki, executive director of the International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association, said many of the group's 4,000 members urge such defensive tactics as:

• Broader use of mandatory handcuffing, even at traffic stops.

• More analysis of video from dashboard cameras in patrol cars to critique officers' behavior with suspects who may pose risks.

• Renewed emphasis on the use of body armor. The memorial fund reports 27% of officers killed last year were not wearing protective vests.

The second and third suggestions seem pretty sensible (although since we're constantly told that one reason to ban "assault weapons" is that police body armor offers scant protection against them, how is increased use of body armor helping against the ostensibly rising tide of criminal use of "assault weapons"?), but I have some serious doubts about the first. It seems to me that such arrogant bullying of
. . . speeders and the like is more prone to increase danger to police officers, by fostering a more adversarial relationship between the "Only Ones" and the rest of us.

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