[rsync]

"I was a bit shocked, though I probably shouldn't have been, to notice recently that police in the local airport all carry assault rifles now. Assault rifles. I'm not that knowledgeable about guns, so I'm not sure what kind exactly - maybe M-16s?"

Airport police in every European airport I have ever traveled in, since well before 9/11, have always carried fully automatic submachineguns.

The US may or may not be a police state, but that's not a good metric upon which to gauge it.