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Should UK Police Be Given Standard Issue Guns?


Guns  

64 members have voted

  1. 1. UK Police Should Carry Guns?

    • Yes, they should carry guns.
      30
    • No, they shouldn't carry guns.
      29
    • I have a separate opinion.
      5


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I don't know much of anything about the UK and it's level of crime, so I can't have much of a formed and thought out opinion on the subject. However I do notice that when British Gamers such as Double Doppler play LCPDFR and role-play as London MET or something, when they respond to a shots fired call, they're practically defenseless and left running for their own life.

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Why shouldn't they? I mean, I live in the US, and where I live, and pretty much every police officer in the US, they carry weapons. For their protection and others.

 

I don't believe they should be. I think a large part of it is the culture of policing in the UK, where like most civilized countries, guns are hard to obtain. 

 

In America, this system would not work. But for a country like the UK, I think this program puts more trust into the police force, something American police are losing every day. 

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-19641398

 

Of course, someone would make the argument, well shouldn't they be able to defend themselves from a knife attack? What if somebody has a gun, then they couldn't defend themselves? Why shouldn't they carry guns, we all know that a mass shooting of cops would change the laws, right? 

 

I think one of the major flaws with this thinking is as I previously stated, culture. the UK much like most civilized countries doesn't have astronomical violent crimes like we do. Police Officers efficiently can protect themselves and others using various other methods than a firearm. As much as I don't agree with disarming the American Police force, the firearm in many cases has hurt police reputation over the years. Officers often go to their firearms as a first instinct. Even though all proper procedure is followed, even though their, or others lives were in danger, even though that was the best outcome to shoot that suspect, it does hurt police reputation. Even in cities I live near, officer involved shootings are a regular occurrence, and even though the police are putting their lives in danger to protect others, and do so lawfully, it nevertheless is a psychological turn-off for Community-Police relations to shoot somebody. I wish the people had more trust in the Police, but when shooting people is a common occurrence, legal or not, I can see why the public is scared. 

-Mr.Quiggles

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very well put man.

I don't believe they should be. I think a large part of it is the culture of policing in the UK, where like most civilized countries, guns are hard to obtain. 

 

In America, this system would not work. But for a country like the UK, I think this program puts more trust into the police force, something American police are losing every day. 

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-19641398

 

Of course, someone would make the argument, well shouldn't they be able to defend themselves from a knife attack? What if somebody has a gun, then they couldn't defend themselves? Why shouldn't they carry guns, we all know that a mass shooting of cops would change the laws, right? 

 

I think one of the major flaws with this thinking is as I previously stated, culture. the UK much like most civilized countries doesn't have astronomical violent crimes like we do. Police Officers efficiently can protect themselves and others using various other methods than a firearm. As much as I don't agree with disarming the American Police force, the firearm in many cases has hurt police reputation over the years. Officers often go to their firearms as a first instinct. Even though all proper procedure is followed, even though their, or others lives were in danger, even though that was the best outcome to shoot that suspect, it does hurt police reputation. Even in cities I live near, officer involved shootings are a regular occurrence, and even though the police are putting their lives in danger to protect others, and do so lawfully, it nevertheless is a psychological turn-off for Community-Police relations to shoot somebody. I wish the people had more trust in the Police, but when shooting people is a common occurrence, legal or not, I can see why the public is scared. 

 

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Why equip them all with guns when they are fine without them now? Like Quiggles said, guns are hard to obtain in most of the UK, and if there is a gun related incident, ARVs are ready to move on scene in less than 2 minutes. No need to fix what isn't broken.

 

2 minutes is a long time when something big is going down.

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2 minutes is a long time when something big is going down.

Just keep in mind, not a lot of gun violence happens in the UK and there is not a good enough reason for them to start carrying. I think they're better off how they are now, and they certainly have more trust than American Police Officers. Within the range of 30 seconds to 2 minutes (depending on the distance of the closest ARV)

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I think they should be more like the New Zealand Police Force, NZ Police do not carry firearms on them unless needed in which case they can equip them from a safe in the trunk of their vehicle. They have tasers with in easy reach (contained in the glove box) and they also have specialised vehicles that carry "heavier" weapons such as assault rifles, shotguns and so on. 

With the argument "that firearms are hard to obtain in most parts of the UK", just because they may be difficult to obtain doesn't mean it's impossible. Maybe there is an ARV within two minutes but think of this scenario, two officers perform a traffic stop on a random vehicle on the side of the motorway, one officer approaches the car, the other stays in the Police car. Out of the blue the driver opens fire on the approaching officer and immediately exits his/her car moving towards the Police car, what is the second officer going to do, throw a can of OC spray at the offender? Maybe their ticket book? Or maybe because they have no way to defend themselves against a firearm the British Police Force will loose two officers because the perp didn't want to wait for an ARV to arrive.
 

Just my thoughts.

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It's not just the culture with the British police, let us not forget the survey that the Metropolitan Police took a couple of years ago were more than 2/3 said that they did not want to carry weapons regularly/on patrol.

 

I think that they should keep their culture and method of policing, if they really needed guns they would had asked for it already (?).

 

Edit: Forgot to put in the word Survey :wallbash::wacko:

Edited by Crizby
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I don't know much of anything about the UK and it's level of crime, so I can't have much of a formed and thought out opinion on the subject. However I do notice that when British Gamers such as Double Doppler play LCPDFR and role-play as London MET or something, when they respond to a shots fired call, they're practically defenseless and left running for their own life.

In reality a shots fired call would result in a Trojan unit (armed response) or another form of armed response depending on the size of the situation. When police officers get shot in the UK it is typically because the suspect has a concealed weapon and this wasn't initially known. For example if a neighbor reports a domestic disturbance they may not state or know that the suspect has a gun and that's why most units dispatched to these calls have tasers and sprays as their expecting the worst case scenario and only one suspect.

 

I live in A rough part of my city and it's rare that officers are killed as the sprays and tasers prove to be effective.

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The argument that guns are hard to obtain, is null and void. It's like drugs. Just because they're illegal and hard to obtain, doesn't mean they're not prominent. It'l super easy to buy them, if you know what you're doing. If a thug wants to carry a gun, believe me, he'll get one. 

 

Saying that they have a better rep than US police officers because they don't carry guns, is ignorant and stupid. The problems in the US aren't caused because they have guns, it's psychological (maturity, power trip, racism, etc.). I don't see any reason why they shouldn't. Especially with the way the world is going. 

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The amount of gun violence in the UK is very low when compared to the United States and other countries. In-fact, it's one of the lowest in the world. I see no reason why officers shouldn't have access to fire-arms (say, in the trunk of their vehicles) but I personally do not think they need a fire-arm on their duty belt. 

 

 

pursuit-smaller.gif.7efd1f0d5e985819303ef4bf454dce2d.gif

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UK Police don't carry guns for a multitude of reasons. The UK law bans all guns, as a result we don't have any need for the police to be armed. Our armed response units are very quick to respond. The people saying 2 minutes is a long time need to take into account that 2 minutes to fully arm, brief and mobilize a team, dispatch them THROUGH LONDON to an incident is actually stupidly efficient, most people in London can't get anywhere in 2 minutes. (I guess flashing blue lights help though)

 

There is also the fact that we can solve issues without the need to shoot someone in the face instantly, then ask questions, even when someone is waving a gun around.

Not all officers carry a tazer standard issue either, we don't need them 99% of the time. UK police carry a batton, and CS spray as safety and that is it. Most powerful weapon we have is a badge and the ability to take all kinds of abuse.

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I'll say no for mostly the same reasons as others.

However, I am for more being Taser equipped. Under the condition that they pass strict training approved by the country's finest(most hated) health and safety Nazis.

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I say no.  The police in the UK have never carried guns.  If you suddenly arm the entire force (sorry, "service") it will cause an enormous outcry.  The opposite will be true in places like the U.S.  The police have always been armed in the U.S.  If you suddenly disarm them, criminals will have a field day and officers will be killed by the dozens.  Different cultures.  America has a gun culture.  UK does not.

GTAV | LSPDFR 0.4.8 | ELS | NaturalVision Remastered/ENB/ReShade

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I don't believe they should be. I think a large part of it is the culture of policing in the UK, where like most civilized countries, guns are hard to obtain. 

 

In America, this system would not work. But for a country like the UK, I think this program puts more trust into the police force, something American police are losing every day. 

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-19641398

 

Of course, someone would make the argument, well shouldn't they be able to defend themselves from a knife attack? What if somebody has a gun, then they couldn't defend themselves? Why shouldn't they carry guns, we all know that a mass shooting of cops would change the laws, right? 

 

I think one of the major flaws with this thinking is as I previously stated, culture. the UK much like most civilized countries doesn't have astronomical violent crimes like we do. Police Officers efficiently can protect themselves and others using various other methods than a firearm. As much as I don't agree with disarming the American Police force, the firearm in many cases has hurt police reputation over the years. Officers often go to their firearms as a first instinct. Even though all proper procedure is followed, even though their, or others lives were in danger, even though that was the best outcome to shoot that suspect, it does hurt police reputation. Even in cities I live near, officer involved shootings are a regular occurrence, and even though the police are putting their lives in danger to protect others, and do so lawfully, it nevertheless is a psychological turn-off for Community-Police relations to shoot somebody. I wish the people had more trust in the Police, but when shooting people is a common occurrence, legal or not, I can see why the public is scared. 

Police officers having and using their weapons is not the issue. The issue is that the public doesn't know jack shit when it comes to the law and police tactics. They know what they have seen on TV and heard from media sources which do a pretty shitty job when it comes to reporting on such topics. Now 99% of the public has a messed up idea of what policing should be. It will never be good enough, if a police officer shoots someone then the public will say "why didn't he use his taser?", then when a police officer tases someone the public says "why didn't he use his pepper spray?" and when a police officer uses his pepper spray the public says "why are cops such pussies? He should have just tackled the suspect.", and when police officers go hands on with someone and tackle them it just cycles back to OC spray, taser, etc. My point being that no matter what a police officer does there is always someone there to criticize how the situation was handled. Unfortunately the police are always in the wrong and always power tripping, abusive dicks in the eyes of the public and the media only makes it worse.

 

This is one of my favorite internet memes (for those of you old enough to remember this TV show) and while it is funny it is also sad because it is very true and not just on the internet but in the media as well.

52553463.jpg

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