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-- Why aren't police officers in U.K. armed?
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Why aren't police officers in U.K. armed?
I think it is absurd not to have armed law enforement officers. Some may argue that having weapons may induce personally (or racially) motivated killings but I think you can overcome that with rigid recruitment and training programs.
What good is it for me to call the police if I am being robbed at gunpoint?
I am saying this because there was another high-profile killing of a police officer recently. Even though 3 officers were at the scene of the crime apprehending one suspect he got away because he had a gun (and killed one of the cops in the process, badly injuring another).
hmmm seems a bit strange to me but i think they reason like "if the criminal knows that the police don't have a gun, then they won't shoot them cause then they know the police don't consitute a threat.."
I think at some point, that policy will have to change. Since the strict gun bans in Britain have gone into effect, gun violence has surged. Criminals know that both the cops and the civilians are likely to not be armed. Thus if the criminals can get guns into Britain - not a hard proposition - they can have free reign.
Personally, I think it's ridiculous. UK police officers should be armed, or at least have arms quickly and readily available to them.
A couple of years back, a situation arose in a town near to where I live where a guy had stabbed another guy (for no particular reason, it turns out) and killed him. He then walked back to his house where the cops turned up and surrounded the house.
None of them were wearing any kind of body armour/protection and it was their job to try and arrest an obviously dangerous man. They all stood around doing nothing, because they were all scared that if they attempted to arrest him, they'd get killed (which they probably would have). And all because the appropriate firearms and body protection isn't available.
If I ran the country, the police would be given a lot more power than what they have now.
That's stupid to be honest.
We have really tight gun control laws down here, amd thankfully every police officer is armed with a handgun (And a batton/capsicum spray) at all times when on patrol.
People are even makng a fuss because they carry older guns, which apparently gives criminals an 'edge'. I can't imagine what it would be like to be completely unarmed. 
Living in the UK this cocerns me, the police should be armed in UK, like there has been so many situations when police have arrived at crime scenes to have someone with a powerfull automatic weapon spraying rounds at them. They need to carry not only decent handguns, but to each squad car aswell an S.M.G like a Heckler & Koch MP5 and a pump action shotgun of some kind incase the face some heavy fire power.
British Police are in the fucking dark ages. You can't just chase someone with a stick anymore, the criminals here are better armed then most S.W.A.T teams these days. The Government don't have a clue at all how many people have to die untill they change laws.
For those who are against British cops being armed put yourselves into this scenario imagine being an officer called out to an armed robbery, the S.W.A.T teams and armed officers are on their way but their going to be 5 minutes and your the first unit there, there is 4 robbers all are career criminals all are heavily armed. Now as an officer your supposed to stop these guys and contain them in the bank untill the armed officers arrive but what can you do with no guns? charge them with nightsticks and fucking CS gas, in that situation being a normal British officer you could do nothing you'd have to let them go and then you follow them in the car but then what happens when they go off? officers have to ambush them which could potentially lead to a gun battle in a busy street and loss of innocent life.
So Blair & Blunkett fucking arm them.
obviously the cops not having guns is not working in the UK, more drastic meassures should be taken to ensure the criminals have no fear of the police.
I propose a radical resolution based on the Abercrombie and Fitch line of thought that will solve this problem: all UK cops should be naked.
This would surely demonstrate to criminals that the police are no threat to them, and that they should surrender to them because they are umm... sexy?
doesn't the UK have one of the lowest per capita gun murder in the world?
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| Originally posted by ahlamalek doesn't the UK have one of the lowest per capita gun murder in the world? |
let's take the argument one step further then, should private security guards be armed? We seem to be getting more and more robberies now where the prize is the guns of the security guards. The guards aren't likley to want to get into a shootout and risk their lives, so the guns are not that much of a deterrent.
If police are called to a scene where they know the suspect is armed, how likley are they to burst in with guns blazing? they will generally move more slowly and carefully, so the extra time for an armed squad to arrive will be less significant. I personally wish our police were not armed, buit then oz does have more of a gun culture than britain, although no-where near that of the u.s.
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| Originally posted by tubby let's take the argument one step further then, should private security guards be armed? We seem to be getting more and more robberies now where the prize is the guns of the security guards. The guards aren't likley to want to get into a shootout and risk their lives, so the guns are not that much of a deterrent. If police are called to a scene where they know the suspect is armed, how likley are they to burst in with guns blazing? they will generally move more slowly and carefully, so the extra time for an armed squad to arrive will be less significant. I personally wish our police were not armed, buit then oz does have more of a gun culture than britain, although no-where near that of the u.s. |
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| Originally posted by Nadi In the states a lot of "mall cops" do have guns, though the ones who do almost all of them only have rubber bullets or pellets. When I went to Israel earlier this summer many security guards even had some sort of semi automatic gun. |
u kknow even if they had a gun, cop guns are usually pretty inferior to that of criminals.
There needs to be a balance struck. I do not think that it would make this country any safer if every police officer on the beat was armed. In fact I think it would actually make the place more dangerous, the criminal types would then look to get tooled up in order to counter the fact that the police are armed.
What does need to be done is much stricter laws regarding just who can and can't have a gun. And, anyone found breaching those rules should have horrendusly stiff sentences passed on them.
Gun violence in Britain has more than doubled since Dunblane. Not arming the cops is like saying to criminals, you know, bring over whatever the hell kind of armament you want from eastern Europe. 'Cuz we're not gonna fight it.
In the US, the "concealed carry" laws that have been passed are essentially in response to a similar situation. If criminals are going to carry guns, why prevent a law-abiding citizen from doing so? In each state that's passed such a law, the crime rate has dropped anywhere from 3-9%. The places that don't have such laws have awful crime rates. (Washington D.C., NYC, LA, and Chicago - these 4 cities have some of the most strict gun laws, and some of the nation's highest crime rates.) I'm not saying concealed carry is a cure-all, but everywhere it's been introduced, it has helped.
UK officers need to get guns... preferrably before I go there to study fall semester next year?
On the case of security guards... I'm somewhat indecisive upon whether or not they should have one. I feel like they should for the protection of the people, and yet then again, I am forced to look at it from another point of view. If a robber knows that the guard has a gun, isn't he just going to make sure his first point of business is to take it? Then is there really a difference if they have one or not?
Terrorists know the bobbies ain't got guns. Things may change when they get hit hard one day. Oh, and I like that other comment. Please come help me from being robbed by this armed intruder and bring your night stick! lol!
{{{smoke}}}
Arm all our police with guns? No thank you!!!
For a start, we DO have armed police (which nobody seems to have noticed!)
Another point - we are not America! We do not have a gun culture like they do over there. You see a few high profile cases where guns have been used, but this is nothing compared to America where it is "their constitutional right" to own guns! Americans think it is ok to own guns, we dont!
In the cases where people have been shot in the UK, what good would armed police have been? The police weren't there at the time obviously!!! And when somebody is reported to have a gun (or a sword etc), the police that turn up on the scene are armed with GUNS!
A few people mention terrorists - well we have one of the most efficiant armies in the world - when it comes to dealing with Irish or Islamic terrorists, we'll let Mi6, Mi5 and the SAS deal with them! 
Arming the entire police force is not needed, and would cause more problems than it would solve...
So these British policemen carry water pistols?
Wa hey!! Somebody did notice!
You can take any picture of an english officer with a gun and take it out of context. Were they on patrol with those weapons? i highly doubt it. More like putting them on display.
America and England are at two extremes. God forbid England becomes a Texas. But countries like Canada are at a better position to deal with any potential gun violence because of stricter gun laws AND armed police on patrol. Why would police officers having guns make more problems? If you cant trust the police then there are more important issues to be addressed than arming them.
Just reading on the recent Leeds shooting and how the officers on patrol simply ran away from the scene of the crime (2 of them) and one was killed helps me confirm my point.
Every nation has its own policies, if they want to outfit there police with guns then so be it, if not then so be it as well. I frankly don't see the big deal either way. Police officers are trained extensively to handle their weapons, so what is the issue. We can talk of Americas gun culture all that we want but individuals should be very careful to remember that with all of the illegal weapons on the streets of America it necessitates the police to have weapons. Once again people resort to comparing England(Europe) to America which is perhaps the most foolish concept that I can never understand. The sad reality is that there is a culture of gun violence in America that Europe doesn't have to that extent. I have one initial for all you guys (NRA), there lies the main problem. Any attempts at gun reform is stymied by their lobbyists in Congress.
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| You can take any picture of an english officer with a gun and take it out of context. Were they on patrol with those weapons? i highly doubt it. More like putting them on display. |
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| Originally posted by smokeape Terrorists know the bobbies ain't got guns. Things may change when they get hit hard one day. Oh, and I like that other comment. Please come help me from being robbed by this armed intruder and bring your night stick! lol! {{{smoke}}} |
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| Originally posted by George Smiley Arming the police will not help protect the citizens of the UK. I'm not sure, but I should imagine the vast majority of cases where a British person has been shot, the police where nowhere near at the time of the shooting...so how could they have helped prevent it, armed or unarmed? |
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