Should All Policemen And Women Be Armed

[emmie]

going on yesterdays and previous terror attacks.

[andy-hughes]

In my view - no.

The more people that carry guns, the more people get shot with guns, the more people that get shot with guns, the more innocent people get shot with guns.

It is a backward step in my view.

[chamois]

They are emmie. They have that controversial device called a taser which has left more than one person dead. Given the location of the atrocity, I really do wonder why time elapsed before an officer shot him in view of the fact that I'm pretty sure that there were officers in the vicinity with tasers. You need to be in close proximity to someone to stab them. Where were the tasers? Who showed disarming skills? I thought all officers were taught this sort of stuff during training.

[emmie]

the PC that was killed wasn't armed, i know he was stabbed probably before he could raise a weapon but i can;t help but wonder if our coppers should all be armed.

[Mamyalynne]

No, I don't think they should.

[furrypusscat]

No, I don't think so. I also believe not many police officers would want to be armed either.

[Zacs-Master]

Not all of them no but I do think it's time to consider it in high risk areas (Major cities, Important institutional buildings - such as HoP).

[jourdain2]

I believe not and that most would not wish to be. They all still carry truncheons, I think, for self-defence. Criminals of all kinds might feel the need to arm themselves for their own defence and so it escalates. Next-door neighbour, policeman, has no wish to be armed.

On the other hand, all gendarmes and local police are armed in France, so I got used to feeling comfortable with seeing them around, but there are a lot more guns around in France and it was quite usual, when out for a walk to exchange greetings with people carrying very powerful hunting rifles (it has to be a powerful rifle to stop a boar).

[DTCwordfan]

No and where they are armed, then that is a police operational matter, not ours. There is an inherent assumption in that they should all be well-trained in the weapon that they are carrying.

[chamois]

At the end of the day, I was taught knife disarming skills during compulsory courses at my place of work. The police are taught to far greater competance in the skill than I was. I fail to understand why it was necessary to wait for an armed officer and I'm basing this solely on a minute by minute account of who was where and when that has come to light since yesterday.

Arming the police with weapons that fire bullets would be a retrograde step and take us down to the level of the criminal.

[marval]

No I don't think they should be armed.

[chamois]

emmie, I have no idea whether the officer was "armed" or not. The point I was making that I'm certain his colleagues in close proximity were "armed" with tasers. If the officer had no time to use his truncheon, what were his colleagues doing at this point? Whilst operational aspects of this event will undergo review, I think an inquiry will occur over what happened and heads will roll.

[emmie]

chamois
according to the rolling news he wasn't armed, obviously there were other officers there who were.

[emmie]

the times i have been out and about i often spot heavily armed officers, especially at the stations, like kings cross.
so a more timely review would be to arm some officers for sensitive places like HOP>

[whiskeryron]

Its alright talking in retrospect about other armed officers in the area, the officer who was killed didn't stand a chance, the low life ran right up to him & stabbed him before anyone could do anything.

[emmie]

whiskeyron
i know.

[Islay]

No

[naomi24]

More should be armed.

[Sqad]

We live in a violent society and are protected in the main by unarmed police who put their lives on the line for us.
Do you really, in these changing times, believe that they should go about their duty....unarmed.
At least we should show our appreciation of their worth, by arming them.

[2sp_]

I have to say no, I don't think our Police should be armed with guns. I do think that the current stab vests they have need to be upgraded to protect them from bullets too.

But I feel that servicing Police officers are really best placed to answer this. Do we have any on here?