What a wonderful world it would be if the citizenry was always well-armed and the government was always unarmed.
I have come to the conclusion that virtually everything I was taught about history, government, and society (social studies) was wrong. I started school in the fall of '61. I have many biases that can easily be dated back to that period.
Essentially, we were taught that government was good and oposing the government was evil.
We were taught that the government was our benevolent overseer.
Thank God for Ronald Reagan. From him I learned that government by its very nature means the restriction of personal freedom. That the larger and more intrusive government is, that the less free we become.
I like the idea of unarmed police. Actually, I think that we are poorly served by professional law enforcement officers. I think that policing should be the domain of a rotating force of local citizens.
Our founding fathers warned against a standing army. Our military today does not threaten me. The "standing army" that I believe is the bane of freedom is the professional law enforcement officer. They are insulated from the general population. The LEO community is lead by politicians. Politics appeals more to takers than it does to makers. Most politicians and would-be politicians are liberal. Virtually all liberals are takers -- people unwilling to work for what they want. They see politics as a means of taking from those people they dislike.
Just because a LEO likes guns, cars, and girls, doesn't mean that he isn't a liberal at heart. The LEO community is over-populated with insular elitists who would strip us of all our rights and even our lives if it served their purpose.
Face it, if it weren't for all the paperwork, there would be many more shootings of civilians by LEOs.