The thing that struck me about the 20-yr old cop that killed those people

[Horse with no Name]

That VanZandt guy yesterday was on MSNBC asking about the wisdom of entrusting a 20-year old as an enforcer of law.
I would say that is a very good point...but one that is missed on the masses. Why wouldn't it be okay to give a 20-year old that power here in the states...yet it is okay for us to give them a gun and send them elsewhere?

[Arkansas Granny]

1. The same thought crossed my mind also.

[TomInTib]

2. "elsewhere" is usually a slighly more structured situation.

But you definitely have a valid point, in my opinion.

The deal is, if you're going to learn to kill people, you have to learn early.

There is no time for the reflection that maturity brings.

But once you are relatively comfortable with killing people, you can do it forever.

[fed-up]

6. I'm sure you meant brainwashed-not "learn to kill people"-not meant in a snarky tone nt

[TomInTib]

11. I meant "learn"

Such as Snipers.

Some troops specialize in Defensive Tactics, some in Aggressive Tactics.

During CQC (Close Quarters Combat training), we were trained to defend ourselves in order to kill the enemy.

[Maestro]

3. Isn't it obvious?

They're defending freedom from those that attacked us on 9-11, er, I mean, protecting us from WMDs, wait, uh, I mean bringing democracy to Iraq, er, what was the question? :sarcasm:

[Bum Whisperer]

4. Cops screw up too

It sounds like a dose of gun control on LE will prevent tragedies like this.

[book_worm]

5. the funny thing too is that 20 year old cop and others that young

can't even drink alcohol, yet can carry a gun and make decisions based on their judgement and interpetation of the law.

[Squatch]

7. While we're at it, we should lower the drinking age to 18.

:evilgrin:

[Midlodemocrat]

8. How about raise the driving age to 18?

:evilgrin:

:hi: Squatch! How are you?

[Squatch]

9. Doing great! Thankya, kindly!

And, I couldn't agree more with the driving age to 18...especially around Northern Virginia. Every day, some kid behind the wheel on a cell phone tries to kill me.

How are you doing? How about this HEAT??? I had to work in DC today and I practically melted walking from the Metro station.

[Midlodemocrat]

12. I know. I went to the grocery store Sunday night and it was still 90ish

and they had fruitcake for sale already!! Couldn't believe it. October 9th, 90+ degrees and fruitcake.

[Squatch]

13. It's kind of hard to get into the autumn mood, isn't it.

[Midlodemocrat]

16. I just want to be able to turn off the air conditioning.

Those few nice days we had were so wonderful! But, not when it's 95 degrees and my office is on the third floor of the house.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

15. Can we raise the cellphone age to around 40 while we're at it?

[Bucky]

19. And ban breast-feeding pit bulls from the Olive Garden!

I'm series!

[aikoaiko]

10. whoops wrong thread

[napi21]

14. I don't think this was an age problem, it was a failure of the

psychological testing they gave BEFORE he was allowed to be trained as an cop. Some people NEVER would be able to pass that test, and some could pass it at 16! I question even IF that small town even GAVE an eval test, and if they did, the people who did the evaluation of his answers obviously failed!

[DemGa]

17. I don't know but they should raise the age requirement

considerably, require a Bachelor's degree in psychology or social science, and do extensive psychological testing before hiring these people to "serve and protect."

[Lydia Leftcoast]

18. Gwynne Dwyer's PBS series "War" (maybe 15-20 years ago) explained that

all countries that have a draft prefer to draft 18-year-olds. There are two reasons:

1. They are at the peak of their physical strength and energy.

2. They are incredibly insecure, especially about their masculinity, so they are suckers for any system that claims to teach them to be "a real man."