Should police carry guns?

Absolutly – people have come to believe hollow point bullets are these
evil, super lethal bullets. In fact, they are safer for the average person to
us. They tend to impart more energy on the target, reducing
overpenetration and potential “shoot through” injuries. they are also
more likely to fragment, further reducing collateral risks. Most of all,
they have greater knock down power, and are more damaging to the
human target. If you’re pointing a gun at someone, let alone pulling the
trigger, you better have a good enough reason to do so. That being
said, you want to kill them as effectivly as possibly, and hollow points
are better for the job.

Also making their rounds are “saftey slugs”, which are plastic bullets
filled with many small shot. They will not overpenetrate, and shatter
(almost) harmlessly if they strike a hard surface.

Frangible ammo is also similar, though instead of a mass of small balls of
shot, it’s a dense metal that fragments on impact.

All of these are much safer to use in urban areas, and they are all much
more effective at knocking down a target.

We’ve got a different train of thought over here in the US. We dont’
want our cops to be put into a situation where they are unable to do
anything. Different place, different culture, different criminals.

Hard to imagine a police officer without at least a sidearm.

but then, over there, I bet it’s just as hard to imagine taking a trip to a
gun show, and walking out with an AR-15, SKS, M-14, or a FAL, a
few thousand rounds of ammo, and die, caps, and powder to reload the
brass…

Hollow point bullets generally stop DEAD.
As a rule they don’t pass through a target and so reduce innocent wounding.
Armed response teams are on the move all the time and if you have ever been pulled by a motorway bobby its a good chance his car contains a weapon.

My personal feelings are that only specialised units should carry firearms, like they do at the moment!

But then what happens if the Fast armed response isnt availble or it isnt known that a suspect is armed with a firearm, and the poor old police constable goes blundering in only armed with a truncheon/asp/nightstick and a can of CS Gas to protect themselves against somebody tooled up with a sawn-off shotgun or increasingly popular amongst crims now a MAC10?.

MOGGY C….sounds like you got some serious issues there…an MP10 with a mag full of hollow points? to the untrained….what does that mean? or do i have to buy a copy of “gun and ammo” monthly?

I think police should carry whips!

I don’t think its wise to arm british police officers.Fully armed police in other countries hasn’t stopped or reduced gun crime and the few police i speak to don’t want it either ,i think its the case of making yourself a target and coping with the after effects of a shooting.The only way i can see is to increase the amount of armed response units in operation at any one time.

I think if officers had guns they would get into all sorts of legal wrangles. For example that Brazilian Menezes guy… okay he wasn’t a terrorist… but his behaviour led to officers being unable to take the risk. I would have shot him in that situation.

I think they should have Stun guns rather than firearms. Zap the blighters instead! LOL

I dont think every officer should carry firearms. As someone has rightly pointed out the number of fire arms is lower in ths country than most.
My opinion is more officers should carry the Tazers.

Most definately not, they do enough damage with a note book and pen.

Paul

Possibly 😮
I was just going on something I was told once… Perhaps I missheard and mainland was in there…

Not quite. The PSNI in Northern Ireland are the only territorial (regional force) to be routinely armed. 2 of the national forces are also routinely armed; the Ministry of Defence Police & the Civil Nuclear Constabulary.

Anyway, there’s no justification for arming all of the police. People tend to forget that the level of armed crime in Britain is quite small compared to many other countries. It’s simply not widespread enough to justify arming every beat bobby.
Britain is NOT America!

Would anyone here want to rely on a weapon ‘knocking the wind out of’ a criminal armed with a real gun?

No thanks. An MP10 with a full mag of hollowpoints would be my preferred option.

Moggy

I don’t blame you either 😀 😀 😀 Mark 😀 Aim for the right place though and they wouldn’t be in much of a position to fight back though 😉

You can’t afford to take today’s criminal lightly. Here in Canada, gun violence is steadily growing and I know that I would rather see a murderer killed by police than a police officer killed by a murderer or any other type of criminal. You cannot allow those who brake the law to have an advantage and give them the ability to simply laugh at a police officer when they are asked to surrender if the arresting officer is unnarmed. I have a couple of friends who are police officers and neither would ever surrender their firearms. The idea of patrolling the streets with a simple collapsable baton or non-leathal weapons would be like committing suicide!

Ermmm

Aren’t we forgetting the PSNI?

Moggy

Possibly 😮
I was just going on something I was told once… Perhaps I missheard and mainland was in there…

They would knock the wind out of an armed suspect but not kill them (or the officers should their weapons be taken).

Would anyone here want to rely on a weapon ‘knocking the wind out of’ a criminal armed with a real gun?

No thanks. An MP10 with a full mag of hollowpoints would be my preferred option.

Moggy

Did you know only the MoD police force is the only UK police force where every officer is certified to carry a firearm?

Ermmm

Aren’t we forgetting the PSNI?

Moggy

What if they were armed with high powered paintball guns………..like those used on “Commando VIP” if anyone watched that. I think British Commando’s also use them for training (room clearing etc.)

They would knock the wind out of an armed suspect but not kill them (or the officers should their weapons be taken).

Another problem is that if you increase the ammount of armed officers, you increase the ammount of firearms accidents.

Did you know only the MoD police force is the only UK police force where every officer is certified to carry a firearm?

nope, not at all

In here they all carry guns…and normally one of the some 8,000 police mens fires a gun one or two times per year…there are armed crimes, but in very, very rearly, so some sort of armed police/gendarmeire would be enough…so guess they just need some penis-extension to make them feel comfortably cocky enough to ‘protect’ us…
It would build confident among the nation if they wouldnt carry guns, i guess…but then you would require the overal gun levels to be low as well…
I think they should ban all firearms, exept sport related, including hunting ones…its an awfull kind of sport, killing animals with no change to survive 😡 …
…anyway, and with no guns in the street other than exceptional occasions, police woulndt need them either…