Should the UK police be equipped with firearms?

[Steve the Pocket]

<!--QuoteBegin-Ankaris+Nov 23 2005, 08:10 AM--> <table border='0' align='center' width='95%' ><tr><td class='quotetop'><b>Quote:</b> (Ankaris @ Nov 23 2005, 08:10 AM)</td></tr><tr><td class='quotebody'> Hmmm... I'd say, change policy slightly. Treat robbery of place of business as if it could be armed robbery, say, give the responding officers body armour and non-lethal takedown equipment. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table> <!--QuoteEEnd--><br> Right. All you really need to subdue a criminal is something that'll knock him out for a few minutes. When I'm old enough to buy guns, all I'm ever gonna get is stuff that shoots tranqs. They'd be handy to have, I think; for one thing, you could shoot a burglar unprovoked without getting in trouble. And come to think of it, it doesn't even have to be a burglar... <!--emo&:mischief:--><img src='http://definecynical.mancubus.net/forum ... schief.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='mischief.gif' /><!--endemo--><br><br>Oh, yeah, I would have too much fun with something like that. <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://definecynical.mancubus.net/forum ... iggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->

[Blue Blur]

*Hides<br><br>Really, I think all tabloids blow stuff so far outta' proportion that it's not funny. Well, usually not.<br><br>Still, I don't think that giving the UK Police guns would solve, but I also don't think that taking guns in the USA would either. Though, tranq darts are nice, I'd probably keep a spare pistol around, too. Lethal force in non-lethal areas works fine. Too bad our police don't like that approach at times.

[Rooster]

I'm not anti-gun. In the right hands, a gun is no more dangerous than a glass of water.<br><br>I used to hunt, and THE first commandment of hunting, is never point the buisness end anywhere near anyone EVEN if you know it's unloaded.<br><br>The thing is, even an unloaded gun can be used in an intimidating manner. I know if a man pulled a pistol on me, I'd do whatever as the only way I have of knowing for sure that the gun is empty is if he shoots me.<br><br><br>Cars are dangerous too, but your not allowed to get behind the wheel until you've passed your license. What about a similar thing for ownership of guns? Even the limited numbers that we have in the UK, breach loading shotguns, 303. rifles, etc...<br><br>Seems perfectly reasonable to me.

[norsenerd]

A popular man named Rush Limbaugh once tried to point to the "fact" that peopel arn;t callign for car controll but are poitnign to gun controol dispite cars killing more poeple then guns. This overlooked the fact that car's are heavaly regulated for safty whiel guns are barly regulated for safty. The sad thing si that meny people bought into this.

[Gizensha]

Rush Limbaugh also ignored the fact that cars already have controls upon them. Said controls are called driving liscences.

[Ozymandias]

The way I see it, we do not need more armed officers. What we need are more officers equipped and trained to tackle armed robberies.<br><br>I'm actually surprised that officers don't have to wear at least Grade II armour anyway *(if I'm wrong and that's not the highest grade that can be covertly worn, even though in this situation it would be overtly displayed, then I apologise)<br><br>On the subject of guns, we can't compare the UK and the US to any great degree on the matter. America has a gun culture where almost no-one feels safe without a gun (or at least the right to one, unquestioned for the most part). And rightly too, when you live in a country full of people with that mindset. After all, if Joe Bloggs has a gun and I give up mine, I am, to a degree, at his mercy. And neither will Joe give up his gun because I won't give up mine.<br><br>In the UK, though, guns are seen as way over the top. I'm going to quote a Britflick called Rancid Aluminium (crap film, nice quote). Anyway, he gets into trouble with the Russian Mafia who give him a gun to shoot a double-crossing business partner. The character says:<br>"But I'm a Brit! We don't use guns!"<br><br>And it's true. There are some horriffic - no, many many horiffic knife murders go on in Glasgow every week, especially near the weekend. There was this photo of a man with a 12" carving knife sticking out of his sternum. And I think that no, we don't need to ban kitchen knives. Just don't make them pointy.<br><br>Honestly, when was the last time you used the point on a kitchen knife? (Cheese knives don't count, but they're curved at the end anyway <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://definecynical.mancubus.net/forum ... /smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->) Personally, I only ever seem to use the cutting blade. I know that people'd still get slashed, but whilst a stab of 1-2 inches is usually fatal, a slash needs far more energy to get that deep and probably never will besides of a broadsword. (Oriental swords don't count because they're masterful and illegal to carry in public, and you can't exactly hide them in a pocket.)<br><br>Britain does, however, have a bit of a knife culture. Four people that I know in my class own knives, excluding me, and I only bought one because two people were stabbed about a month ago as they waited for busses. This would not be surprising if it was not Shakespeare's Stratford-upon-Avon, where there really isn't much besides tourism. I also catch busses late at night, and I wouldn't like to be pinned against a wall by someone with a knife and nothing but a biro to defend myself with.<br><br>I guess my point is that we shouldn't be arming officers with guns and elevating the stakes to a gun culture to a knife culture over here. I mean, if even a mild-mannered guy like me buys a knife, then you know something's up. And that something shouldn not be escalated.