I’m not sure I’d take too much solace in the Channel as a natural border.

Better than many of the borders in Europe, maybe not as good as an electric fence?

There is the tunnel….and how strict are customs checks these days?

There is, and it has been fairly successful – as far as has been reported. Yes, there have been a few who have made it nearly all the way through only to be caught whilst others have made it past the detector systems at the French portal only to end up mashed into the tracks in the dark of the tunnel. Of course the alternatives are to swim across (none have tried and succeeded that I’ve heard of) or try and sneak on to a cross channel ferry, maybe on board a truck; other European borders are much easier to cross.
I believe the checks are extensive at the moment (or they were when I went through a couple of times in the summer) but the customs officer numbers have been decimated in the last decade or so.

Are you saying a disassembled AK-47 couldn’t be smuggled in?

It could probably be smuggled in fully assembled; the point I’m making is that gun crime in Britain has not shown that it can get along nicely(!) without the need for AK47s. Terrorism might demand AK47s but has so far as Britain is concerned it has gotten along with explosives (well, ten years ago they did…) and no massacres have taken place – yet. Hopefully the security services have been on the ball enough to prevent them so far, but we only hear what they want to let us know about…

Are there any illegal immigrants? If a person (or anything else worth smuggling) can get in, so can a firearm.

Yep.

In the course of history, a sense of “It can’t happen here” is the first action of it happening.
Whenever one feels smug, take a deep breath and remember the Titanic.

I am not saying it can’t happen here, merely pointing out that if there is an obstacle in the way it does slow down the flow – the sea cannot just go straight through an obstruction, it needs to go around, over, or take its time and wear its way through. A sentient being will figure a way to get over its obstruction, but it is still a hindrance.

J. B. The more this unravels, the more I am thinking we too should have your 2nd, “The right to bear arms,” in this Country, and I never thought I would ever say that !!

Wonderful.
All those snarky chavs, armed. That guy across the road who plays Classic FM a bit too loud, armed. The white van man who would rather you drove a bit faster so is all over your rear bumper, flashing his lights and gesticulating his opinion of your character wildly out the window, armed. That creepy bloke, the one who stands and stares at the rubbish bin in the precinct whilst silently mouthing Milton’s Paradise Lost at what seems to be around a thousand words a minute, armed.
Meanwhile, what are the chances of you ever being involved in any event like that in Paris? Probably similar odds to winning the lottery or getting hit on the head by a meteorite.
The terrorists have done their work, Linc. You are obviously terrified. They have won.

This is sad…

Another example of giving in to the terrorists. Not that many US military personnel are likely to want to travel to Paris for a weekend at the moment, but making the whole thing official and then making it public too…

Re 45

Thank you for that geography lesson. How are you on particle physics ?

так себе, но неважно.

The English chanel is no border. The ports offer little protection.

Interesting. Clearly you have recently been confronted with a Kalashnikov, brandished by a mugger eager to relieve you of your smart phone.
No?
Well, my point was that we haven’t yet been over run with AK47 wielding criminals so I’m hardly surprised.

Was I the only one wondering if any of these terrorist can slide in with other imigrants?

No, many others would have been thinking exactly the same thing based on the evidence of that false Syrian passport. Gee, I wonder if some far-thinking terrorist leader thought that terror could be further spread by giving his suicide team fake credentials, papers that would make the suspicious inhabitants of Europe fear that every immigrant is a terrorist? That plan is working well…

We now know they communicate using game chat.

We do?
Hardly surprising since phone lines can be monitored for keywords.

But the thing that bothers me most is, journalists demanding to know what and how the security forces are monitoring said sites and individuals? The less we say the more chance of stopping this. I for one don’t want any member of my family or friends to be a statistic.

It is what the media do. And usually these things are ‘leaked’ so that the government can be shown to be doing something – did we need to know that seven plots had been foiled already, or was that information given out to Cameron’s advantage?
And you are already a statistic – you are one of those terrified fools cowering in fear of a highly unlikely terrorist assault involving yourself or your family.
Well done – they are winning.

This pussy footing softly softly aproach has to stop. It’s strange how a group of “radicals” can hold a meeting in Bedford yet if we hold a meeting we’re classed as racist. For God’s sake Wake up.

We? I think you are speaking for yourself there.
If YOU hold a meeting YOU’re classed as racist – I wonder why that would be…?

…I would then call the emergency services and ask for them to send their prettiest totty.

A different age, obviously; I believe you would need the emergency services after referring to any female as ‘totty’.

If recent events in Southwest Asia are indicators of things to come…

Where abouts are we talking?

One the subject of Police in the UK being armed, I’ve often asked the question myself.

But it’s worth mentioning that even though most French Police are armed, they weren’t able to stop this attack. Unless the Police happen to be present at an attack, even a response time measured in a couple of minutes is ample time for terrorists to inflict huge casualties.

That is the thing with terrorism. It can strike anywhere at any time.

If they want a fight I say lets give it to them.

Yeah! Woo! Go team!
But where to send ‘it’? The physical front line might be Syria or Iraq but some of the Paris attackers were from France – I won’t ask the obvious.
And they are being fought in Syria and Iraq, but unless we put boots on the ground little effect will be made – and then we will be seen as the bullying christians trying to enslave the moslems, which would do wonders for IS recruiting…

Unflattering lighting displaying a chubby face that looks like it has the texture of leather?

Instead of arming your police, why not just stop everyone and their Kalashnikovs from entering the country?

As I noted earlier, we have not a Kalashnikov problem in Britain. Europe, on the other hand, does. The reinstatement of all border controls can only be a step forward, but it will happen is another matter.

Where are you from again?

The only reason for this crap is mass immigration. When I first heard of the attacks in Paris I couldn’t contain my laughter, because an hour or so before I had been watching a TV documentary on WWI where they were telling us what kind of powder-keg the Balkans were because of the mix of religions/cultures.

The ‘only reason’ is religion, but let us look past that for the time being.
More worrying is that you are amused by such an act of terror: what must this say about your state of mind?

It’s just as funny as when you watch Rambo III again, and hear the speech of the colonel Trautman after the US invasion.

Erm, not a film I am familiar with but I somehow doubt that it is meant to be a comedy. But, once again, your state of mind…?

So, just to clarify, your ‘solution’ is to stop people entering the country with guns…

…not arm the Police, but then allow people to arm themselves? :rolleyes:

He’s already said it himself…

It seems hypocrisy is all the rage in the XXI-st century.

Welcome to the cheap seats.

Immediately stop ALL legal/ Illegals entering the U.K. until we can contain the situation a damn sight better than we are doing at present.

All legal/illegals??? From Europe? From the Americas? From Asia? Cut ourselves off from the world?

Yes, that would do it…

It’s just a fiasco, I am now thinking, where I was once strongly opposed, to having I.D. cards.(Now enter the P.C. Brigade !! ).

And how would ID cards have stopped the events that took place in Paris? Unless you impose upon the public with ID checks at every street corner then what difference would such cards make?

Paris is so close as to make little difference.

Paris is in France, across many miles (kilometres?) of countryside and the other side of the English Channel. It is a natural border, one which halted Hitler and provides another line of defence for those who wish to smuggle automatic weapons and explosives into Britain. The English Channel makes a difference.

Mods, is this really on topic or even on forum anymore?

No.
They are not trained; giving them a gun without the appropriate and proper training would be dangerous – if not for us then for them. An officer trying to figure out whether he needs to get his gun out or not is not going to help anybody, just as much as one who causes trauma to the public by flashing his gun around for no reason. It used to be the case that there were various armed response vehicles based around each county, with armed officers aboard, that would rush to any incident that might require them – although these days, what with the standard budgetary cuts, trying to establish how these units are faring (or even if they still exist in any meaningful or useful way) will be a little difficult.

As far as the French police go, apparently not all officers are routinely armed.

Legalize gun carrying. Who trusts the police anyway?

Legalise it for the police, or the public too?

My cousin is a Brit. He studied criminology & what not and did all the studies to become an inspector for Scotland Yard. He was really into it and wanted to be a cop from very small. Once he did a training in situation & found out what it was about, he quit his dream and has done nothing since then.

Was your cousin in the police already, or are you thinking of some different branch of the police in the UK?
An inspector is a rank to achieve via promotion rather than a defining job title.

It must be said – there haven’t been many (any?) instances involving Kalashnikovs in Britain since Hungerford, which raises the question about whether automatic weapons are simply difficult to import (smuggle) into Britain, whether the criminal fraternity here feel they need these (or, indeed, other) guns, or whether the security services have continually been successful in apprehending or preventing those who desire these weapons from obtaining them.

“one of the world’s strongest armies”

The Afghans didn’t seem too worried.

Indeed, and neither did the North Vietnamese…;o)

Off the top of my head it was around 1988 – 89, and was incidentally the last time I saw one fly!

Rob

You might well (as in quite probably or absolutely) be right.

In mitigation I was some 25-odd years younger then, with more brain cells and fewer grey hairs.

…to study agricultural economics…

Somehow I would have assumed he would have studied something different, something a little more…engineer-y?

Wonder what his hours are now, with and without Spitfire.