armed police

[corydoras]

I take it you are referring to the Menezes shooting. When did he 'not do as he was told'? AFAICR he was not challenged by the Police before they decided that they had to shoot him in the head 6 or so times.

[Jim Roper]

On a personal note Ken I agree with you in principle, but I just don't have any respect, trust or confidence in the police force we have today to carry such firearms.

Unfortunately there are low-lifes in every part of society nowadays, especially the police.

It doesn't seem to attract the sort it did years ago.

 

It's said: If gamekeepers were not gamekeepers, they would be poachers.

AND: If policemen were not policemen, they would be criminals.

 

MUST BE IN THE GENES!

Edited October 22, 2006 by Jim Roper

[RobStubbs]

Just a quick note re armed police in the US (and this probably holds true for most countries) - the vast majority of our police officers have never drawn their weapon in line of duty and even fewer have ever fired it.

Most will go through an entire career and only ever use their pistol on the firing range.

 

Our armed response units will draw their weapons on an almost daily basis. But that's because they are sent to all gun crime incidents, and probably others as well. That said the vast majority have never fired their weapons in anger. There is a detailed report on the home office site that lists all the above in detail and what's suprising is the massive increase in armed officers and their increased deployment over the last ten years - I'll see if I can dig out the reference (even before 9/11 etc).

 

Reference found:

 

Firearms statistics

 

Rob.

Edited October 23, 2006 by RobStubbs

[Guest sandpipper]

If the police are anything to go by where i live you have to call them (drive by shootings) because the lazy gits would not get out of there cars

[merlino bill]

That makes no sense at all. Why do some criminals now carry guns then ? And why in the US don't all criminals carry guns ? Gun and knife carrying by criminals is purely dependent on the criminals activities and mind set, it's totally independent of the police.

 

Rob.

 

OI OI,

as i said its only my opinion rob but you will always have a minority carrying weapons BUT if you armed all police i think it would change to a majority, its annoying when they do shoot someone rightly or wrongly how they are persecuted by does no one think how scared the officer is when confronted with a gun you can learn all sort's in a classroom but you can't teach the fear factor when a gun is pointed in your face

 

[corydoras]

but I for one accept that as a small price to pay.

 

Rob.

You can have the job of telling some kid somewhere that Daddy is not coming home tonight, or ever again because he was shot by mistake.

[snakey1]

Arming the police enmass is not the solution to the problem of armed crime as it does nothing to deal with the root cause of crime which seems to me to be a total lack of respect for anyone and anything. Tougher sentences need to be introduced where life means life not 6 years, where hard labour in prisons is brought back no more videos & tv's in cells, make the punishments something to be feared make prison a harsh regime not a holiday camp.The return of compulsary national service would also be a massive benefit and would aid in reducing firearms crime by teaching respect for life and weapons (note we do not have national service and we have the highest firearms crime rate in europe, switzerland has compulsary national service and almost every household contains a firearm yet it has the lowest firearms crime rate in europe this may be a simplification but it makes more sense than saying " ban all firearms and arm all police and we'll be safe if we don't we'll end up like new york" which is often touted although it is actually illegal to own a firearm in the state of new york so only crimals & police carry one there).

By all means give the police tasers and other none lethal forms of defence but sort the cause of crime out first not just the symptoms.

Also let the police do their job cut back on paper work and get them out on the beat.

Edited October 24, 2006 by snakey1

[underwaterimage]

I totally agree with Snakey. I am a firearms license holder with several items in my cabinet. What the public dont realise is that there are more armed response vehicles driving around then they realise. All kept under wraps for obvious reasons. Sometimes the ARV's stop and have a chat when i shoot on one of my farms and they are great. On the flip side some armed police officers are banned from using our range due to breaking of safety rules. So my opinion is that there are damn fine ARV's and others not so good. However i dont fancy a regular trigger happy officer (if they were all armed) bumping into me on the farm when im carring what looks like a sniper rifle and my pump action.

[ColinW]

The police wouldn't need guns if they (and teachers) were allowed to give the kids a smack round the ear (or a frigging good kicking if need be) at the very start of their criminal careers.

As the old sayings go "A stitch in time saves nine." or even "Spare the rod, spoil the child"

Of course there will be some woolly headed do-gooder on soon ranting about "judge and jury" or "violence never solves anything" but a thick ear at thirteen years old is better than crashing a car into a baby at fifteen years old.

We've tried the soft approach, look around the streets, it didn't work!

Edited October 24, 2006 by ColinW

[Clifftop]

The police wouldn't need guns if they (and teachers) were allowed to give the kids a smack round the ear (or a frigging good kicking if need be) at the very start of their criminal careers.

As the old sayings go "A stitch in time saves nine." or even "Spare the rod, spoil the child"

Of course there will be some woolly headed do-gooder on soon ranting about "judge and jury" or "violence never solves anything" but a thick ear at thirteen years old is better than crashing a car into a baby at fifteen years old.

We've tried the soft approach, look around the streets, it didn't work!

 

Have to go along with this, maybe not the answer but it worked pretty well on my generation.