Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

Violent crime rates are down significantly since 1993 or so, significantly, maybe due to Biden's crime bill.

So, I'd opine perhaps history shows it has worked out that way.

My dad, incidentally, worked with prison populations to set up educational programs for them.  I was shocked at about age 10 or so to learn recidivism rates were over 70%.  He believed that very few prisoners really took advantage of the opportunities provided to develop a skill or get a GED.

His job also changed his views on race significantly to the point I avoided the topic like the plague around him.

Not sure I do. By definition, if you are ok with whatever the current rate of holding people at gunpoint, then you've accepted it. A lot of people just accept it - we don't have protests about it. Common is a subjective measure, though it certainly seems silly to call it rare. In any event, the number of things that our government does that are violent in the name of protecting our safety is extremely frequent.

Objectively, our incarceration rates are historically high. We lock a pretty large amount of purple in cages. Killing dogs, full body cavity searches, holding people at gunpoint - it's a lot.

The protests only come when the government kills or maims someone, and even then people want to both sides the issue.

I'm pretty sure sfbadger is familiar with firearms and their potencies, FYI.

I think it also true that "back in the day", LEOs carried .38 Specials or even .32 caliber pistols.  I was alive when the SP went to the .357 as they needed better penetration capability.  Then they went to 9 mm semi-auto, which is an upgrade in magazine size.  Some/many have gone to 10 mm.  So, I think the standard firepower of the police side arm has gone up over time.

And obviously rate of fire of common guns has gone WAY up since 1787.

The big shift more recently has been from revolvers to mag fed semiauto handguns.  You go from 5 or 6 rounds on hand to 15 or 17 or more, and a pretty quick recharge.

The same shift happened when we went from the 1903 Springfield rifle to the M1 Garand, more rate of fire and more magazine capacity.

I was responding to his specific claim that guns are more powerful now and addressing the notion that the AR-15 is one of those. By industry standards, the AR-15 is one of the less powerful weapons compared to other popular calibers.

It is interesting, to me, how some judge an individual based on things like history and the color of his skin and perhaps his position in law enforcement.

That would be classic prejudice and bias, forming an opinion about an individual based on  the general.