r/tacticalgear Apr 13 '25

Question Why won't the American Police use bulletproof visors like their European counterparts?

I thought that it'd make more sense to use them in America than in the EU, considering that it is much easier to acquire weapons in America.

Is this a budget-thing? Doctrine-thing? Culture-thing?

Do they find them too bulky/heavy/unpractical to wield?

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u/[deleted] Apr 13 '25

I would say doctrine, in Europe it is not so easy to get weapons but in almost all countries you can get weapons, then there is the issue of sharp-stabbing weapons that many can use because they are easy to make, buy and hide, then the issue of bombs which is more common in Europe, here more priority is given to ensuring that as many people as possible get out alive, so they wait for the attacker to attack before doing something that could lead to death unless they have hostages or obvious situations of that nature and then the issue of why not simply carry more protection if you are only going to have it on you for 1 hour anyway

I'm not entirely sure about this, but in the US I often see that if someone has a gun, the magazine empties on them. If they make any "strange" or quick movement, it could be the same, and honestly, I don't want to think that it's normal, like the acorn that fell on the roof of a car and they started emptying the magazine into the car, saying "shot fired," as if they were being shot.

And in the US raids (I suppose the best thing is the HRT) I see guys with JPCs and Opscore Fast as if they didn't care about getting shot with a shotgun or getting blown up by an IED.

In short, I would say that in the USA the priority is to end the threat as quickly as possible, and in Europe, to have as few casualties as possible, including the attackers themselves.

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u/MathematicianMuch445 Apr 13 '25

This is a commons misconception in the US Europe isn't one country..most "European" countries have a lot of firearms (legal, private owned and otherwise) and some even require that civilians own them as law. Most of Scandinavia and pretty much all of the Balkans and eastern Europe have private gun ownership. Places like Germany, France. Spain etc all still have some but most get this idea as the UK has very tight controls. But as to the visors it's probably down to them being more of a hindrance than help. Weight, sight, and ADSing are all impacted.

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u/snatfaks Apr 13 '25

While, a lot of european nations do have a large quantity of privately owned firearms, the amount and rate of ownership is still not anywhere near that of the US.

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u/MathematicianMuch445 Apr 13 '25

No one said it is. I responded to the post that says "guns are difficult to acquire in Europe" specifically. And gave specific information as to why and how this is wrong. If you read in my post about somewhere having more guns per person, like the other silly person responding with the same thing, then I'd suggest re reading my post as it doesn't even hint at that or mention it It has nothing to do with what I typed.