Re: PA availability, was: [semi OT] Women wargamers

Charles spake thusly upon matters weighty: 
>	PA suits for police also has one tremendous advantage-- they
won't have
> to shoot as many people.  Think about it, today, officers often open
> fire when they are fired on...

Or to stop a threat to public safety, which may be present in the 
future in an even larger scale, given the decline of cities, 
increased urbanized populaitons, declining resources, ease of making 
firearms, etc. 

Also, you can bet a number of people will be armed with HAMRs and the 
like. 

 but if you have a PA suit that is immune
> to small caliber fire, then all they have to do is walk up to the
fellow
> and take his gun away.  It won't help with criminals armed with
> anti-armor weapons, but those are just a bit more conspicuous then a
> typical revolver.

But you lose 
1. SA (SItuational Awareness) to some extent by being in a zoot suit
2. You lose human contact - more important than SA to a lot of cops. 
For example, the average disturbed person or person with a chip will 
react better to a 'human' presence than the presence of a large metal 
behemoth that represents some of the forces that are probably seen to 
cause the distress (society, law, government, military, you name it - 
authority and power in general, the well to do). Yes, these suits are 
great for backing down gun-toting gangbangers (the sane, non-drugged 
variety) but not so hot for solving domestics and mental health act 
calls (a goodly chunk of police work). I still think, even in the 
future, for just this type of reason, PA will remain a SWAT tool. It 
has its place where the cops have to unsheath their claws. But in 
most situations, a human face and a kind but firm voice can stop a 
lot of the incidents before they escalate. Also, the costs of PA 
might keep it out of the hands of anyone but SWAT. 

And if I ever finish my long awaited treatise on non-lethal (not as 
someone pointed out non-violent) weapons, then maybe I can give the 
SG2 cops some other options rather than gunning down the rioters. 
Since this type of topic has come up again, I'll dig it up and see if 
I can finish it in the next few days.  

Tom. 
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Thomas Barclay		     
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 "C makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot.  C++ makes
 it harder, but when you do, it blows away your whole leg."
 -Bjarne Stroustrup
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