For you LEOs and COs, understand the history here. Just about every anti-gun law that comes out aimed at the commoners contains LEO exceptions. And when they happen to forget an exception (New York) the people in charge are quick to point out that LEOs shouldn't worry about it, and the law will be "fixed" soon to take care of them. We hear solemn quotes and learned opinions from chiefs and the like, all saying they think the new law is a good idea. On the internet people tell us the rank and file think new gun control is a bad idea, but they can't talk in public about that. What we never hear is someone in a uniform saying it is hypocritical and bad for liberty to single out one class and put them against another when it comes to individual rights. Never said.
As the years pass and government becomes ever more intrusive, the role of the police state is undeniable. Many of you in law enforcement no doubt see hostility out there. Law abiding taxpaying honest people with no record are seeing police as the hammer of government. When doors get kicked in, dogs shot, justice denied, and rights assaulted, the man in the photo is not the lawmaker who passed the bill or the voter who elected him. The man in the photo is you. And you are, increasingly, pissing people off just by wearing that uniform.
Corrections officers are enabling a prison system that is a disgrace. What happens inside is a mystery to most of us. But when incarceration and sodomy are so linked as to be a standing joke many of us see any prison sentence as a death sentence. We know people are arrested and imprisoned for victimless crimes. We know, just mathematically, that an absurd portion of our population is in prison. You make that possible. Of course people are angry about that. Did you take the job assuming otherwise?
You can't take the job, keep your mouth shut, protect others on the job, look the other way, and just follow orders --- you can't do that and not become part of the problem. From the outside looking in, most of us suspect that is standard operating procedure. We don't trust police. We fear them. We don't trust the system. We know it is corrupt. We don't believe in justice. We know that concept is dead.
Naturally we understand many of you (probably most) are decent honest people just doing a job. The problem is we don't know who you are. And even among you there is the strong chance that when pressure is applied you will protect your own at our expense, even if that means justice is denied. We know the thin blue line is there. We know what side of it we are on. We know that any LEO who calls out abuse or corruption is going to be hammered for doing it it. We know what that means for us.
Do you understand now why we don't jump with joy at the idea of giving you more power and more privilege? If the idea were to give, say, dentists LEOSA coverage it would seem arbitrary and unfair. As it is, this idea is worse.