Be Excellent To Each Other

In a little-noticed move, a small number of police officers are now routinely carrying sidearms while on patrol in much of Scotland - the first in the UK outside Northern Ireland to do so.

I don't think I like that at all. There doesn't seem to be a good reason to arm police officers unless they're protecting sensitive locations (like airports or Scotland Yard). Is there not a fear of starting off an arms race with the baddies?

Father of Dunblane victim furious over Police Scotland claims that armed officers could have stopped massacre

THE father of a Dunblane victim has hit out at police claims that arming officers could have prevented the tragedy.

Dr Mick North lost his five-year-old daughter Sophie when killer Thomas Hamilton struck at her school.

The anti-gun activist has slammed Police Scotland Chief Constable Sir Stephen House for suggesting armed bobbies could have stopped the massacre.

At a force summit in June, the country’s top policeman highlighted the mass murder of Sophie, her 14 primary 1 classmates and teacher Gwen Mayor as a reason why units should not spend “an extra five, 10, 15, 20 minutes” arming themselves.

Dr North said: “I can’t see how any armed police would have stopped Dunblane.

“It took 15 minutes until any police officer arrived at the school when the incident was all over in three minutes.”

I'm not keen on the idea either. I don't necessarily mind it so much if the officers in question are trained to the same standard as SO19 and the other firearms units, but when they start handing them out to "normal" coppers that's when I think it's going too far.

Yeah, I don't have a problem with that. Firearms units don't need to spend all their time training and/or responding to firearms incidents (there just won't be that many of them) so carrying their sidearms on routine patrols I don't have an issue with.

The determination of 'dangerous' would be made by the armed officer

That's always the case though, isn't it?

I think it's a stupid idea for coppers to be turning up to regular brawls outside nightclubs with their guns dangling from their waist.

Aye, as Gaz says obviously trained firearms personnel won't have their time taken up with those specific duties and should totally be out doing 'normal' police work in the interim (which was the police's defence of their presence in that article) but at that point they should be normal police and leave the guns behind.

Where are the DNA coded hamdguns that science fiction has promised me? Or fingerprints, even?

They are here, although the NRA in america has slammed them and declared them unsafe

"Tragic victims couldn't have been saved by trigger locks or magazine bans or 'smart-gun' technology, or some new government commission running our firearms companies," NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre said. "They could have been saved by something far simpler and more common sense, zero-tolerance enforcement of the mandatory sentencing provisions in the gun laws against violent criminals we've had on the books for a long time."

Aye, as Gaz says obviously trained firearms personnel won't have their time taken up with those specific duties and should totally be out doing 'normal' police work in the interim (which was the police's defence of their presence in that article) but at that point they should be normal police and leave the guns behind.

I think the argument is that if you need the armed police you need them in a fucking hurry, and you don't want them to have to run back to the police station (or wherever the armory is), pick up their guns then respond to the problem.

Well then they're also extremely unlikely to be in a position to respond quickly to whatever thing kicks off that needs armed rozzers.

Right?

Yeah, I can see that - but if they're "on the beat" they don't have a car, do they?

Police in the UK should not have guns as a routine, should only be for armed response, they are bad enough as it is. Trigger happy wankers most of them.

In the year 2007–08, there were 6,780 Authorised Firearms Officers, 21,181 police operations in which firearms were authorised throughout England and Wales and 7 incidents where conventional firearms were used.[2]

ACPO policy states that "use" of a firearm includes both pointing it at a person and discharging it (whether accidentally or negligently, or intentionally).[25] As with all use of force in England and Wales, the onus is on the individual officer to justify their actions in court.[26]

I think that's a bit strong!

As far as I can see there have been fewer than 25 incidents in 34 years in the UK

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_use ... at_Britain

Doesn't strike me as trigger happy at all?

Malc

Did you read some of the incidents on there?

Unlawful killings that couldn't be reviewed due Police statement redactions, women killed who had a BB gun, mental ill guy waving a sword shot dead, (home security sent an apology letter in this case)

Trigger happy fuckers the lot of them