Armed police

[Ste Story]

Quite an interesting subject, just thought i'd get a bit of debate going - should police in this country be armed?

[boyliegladbach]

Yes, at first it should be the individual policeman/womens choice as its unfair to make someone who never wanted to carry a weapon carry one.
But eventually train all new police recruits in the use firearms, so they know when joining up they could be put in a position where weapons may be used and have the confidence and skills to use them.

But I don't think that being armed would have prevented the 2 from yesterday being killed by an ambush and a grenade attack .

[Nigel Bamford]

However tragic, and this latest incident most certainly is, the fact is they remain isolated occurrences. My view is that they would become far more frequent and however much officers were trained there would inevitably be a rise in the Jean Charles de Menezes type shooting and the sparking of more unrest through a single misplaced bullet.

[DaveP]

I'm really not sure about this.

I think I read something a while ago to say that a large proportion of US police officers had never actually fired their gun whilst on duty.

[Jim]

Too much knee jerk reaction. Being armed would not have helped these two officers or PC Rathband as they were all shot without warning.

I saw one article asking why two female officers had been sent - as if being male would have stopped them being shot!

[boyliegladbach]

Too much knee jerk reaction. Being armed would not have helped these two officers or PC Rathband as they were all shot without warning.

!

But perhaps the scum like Moat and this other idiot might not have been so enthusiastic about killing police officers had they known they were armed.

Two police officers tried to follow Derek Bird on his spree. When he stopped and aimed his weapon at them, they had no choice but to allow him to escape and he went on to kill more, if they were armed then maybe lives could have been saved

Bring back thre death penalty as well (for all murderers)

[Nigel Bamford]

Too much knee jerk reaction. Being armed would not have helped these two officers or PC Rathband as they were all shot without warning.

!

But perhaps the scum like Moat and this other idiot might not have been so enthusiastic about killing police officers had they known they were armed.

Two police officers tried to follow Derek Bird on his spree. When he stopped and aimed his weapon at them, they had no choice but to allow him to escape and he went on to kill more, if they were armed then maybe lives could have been saved

Bring back thre death penalty as well (for all murderers)

What happened to your response to my comment, boyliegladbach? Some statistics, I think, about the number of shooting incidents in Germany. I was just gearing myself up for a reply only to find it's disappeared.

[boyliegladbach]

Too much knee jerk reaction. Being armed would not have helped these two officers or PC Rathband as they were all shot without warning.

!

But perhaps the scum like Moat and this other idiot might not have been so enthusiastic about killing police officers had they known they were armed.

Two police officers tried to follow Derek Bird on his spree. When he stopped and aimed his weapon at them, they had no choice but to allow him to escape and he went on to kill more, if they were armed then maybe lives could have been saved

Bring back thre death penalty as well (for all murderers)

What happened to your response to my comment, boyliegladbach? Some statistics, I think, about the number of shooting incidents in Germany. I was just gearing myself up for a reply only to find it's disappeared.

i wrote it, tried to edit it, and lost it!!

it was that people think that because police are armed that there will be 1000s of gun incidents

germany is a lot bigger than us, but well trained poilce staying within their rules of engagment fired a total of 49 warning shots and 36 shots aimed at individuals while pursuing suspects last year. From those incidents, 15 people were injured, and six were killed.

american police put more rounds than that into one person sometimes.

i just think that pepole hear about armed police and think straight away that they will all be running round with a heckler & kock G36 shooting anything that moves. when in fact they would have a standard 9mm pistol harnessed and used in self defence only.

[patrickstarfish]

[SwearFilter] that, they are a big enough problem to normal society, don't arm the [SwearFilter]!

[spirit of 1990]

[SwearFilter] that, they are a big enough problem to normal society, don't arm the [SwearFilter]!

Poor post to what is a serious subject, especially under the circumstances.

[sempre contigo]

[SwearFilter] that, they are a big enough problem to normal society, don't arm the [SwearFilter]!

I agree with this. Not the way I would put it but he's got a point

This is a terrible incident and I have every sympathy for the families and friends of the ppl who were killed but lets not go mad here.

Like the chief commander said last week this is a rare occurance, Lets not blow things out of proportion by talking about arming them and the death penalty for killing one, its a ridiculous thought if you ask me.

[boyliegladbach]

So 2 people out doing there jobs, investigating a report of someone burgling what could be your houses, are confronted by someone with a gun, they dont have the right to defend themselves.

Looks like one of them mananged to get a taser out, if she could get a taser out she may have had time to get a gun out.

And if when faced with a one eyes freak pointing a weapon and firing at her she still had the bottle to try taser him she gets maximum respect from me.

[Shaun]

No, they shouldn't be armed.

[Nigel Bamford]

Too much knee jerk reaction. Being armed would not have helped these two officers or PC Rathband as they were all shot without warning.

!

But perhaps the scum like Moat and this other idiot might not have been so enthusiastic about killing police officers had they known they were armed.

Two police officers tried to follow Derek Bird on his spree. When he stopped and aimed his weapon at them, they had no choice but to allow him to escape and he went on to kill more, if they were armed then maybe lives could have been saved

Bring back thre death penalty as well (for all murderers)

What happened to your response to my comment, boyliegladbach? Some statistics, I think, about the number of shooting incidents in Germany. I was just gearing myself up for a reply only to find it's disappeared.

i wrote it, tried to edit it, and lost it!!

it was that people think that because police are armed that there will be 1000s of gun incidents

germany is a lot bigger than us, but well trained poilce staying within their rules of engagment fired a total of 49 warning shots and 36 shots aimed at individuals while pursuing suspects last year. From those incidents, 15 people were injured, and six were killed.

american police put more rounds than that into one person sometimes.

i just think that pepole hear about armed police and think straight away that they will all be running round with a heckler & kock G36 shooting anything that moves. when in fact they would have a standard 9mm pistol harnessed and used in self defence only.

You don't say whether the 15 injured and 6 killed in Germany were innocent and I don't know enough about German society to comment. But neither do I think that arming our police would result in "1000s of gun incidents" or running around with whatever you suggest they might run around with. I don't even know what a standard 9mm pistol is but I guess it could do somebody some harm. It is, of course, purely supposition that if they had been armed then the killers might have thought twice but, equally, I put forward the supposition that people like Moat and others might see it as a bit of a challenge and the situation could become worse.

[Wilberforce Williams]

Too much knee jerk reaction. Being armed would not have helped these two officers or PC Rathband as they were all shot without warning.

!

But perhaps the scum like Moat and this other idiot might not have been so enthusiastic about killing police officers had they known they were armed.

Two police officers tried to follow Derek Bird on his spree. When he stopped and aimed his weapon at them, they had no choice but to allow him to escape and he went on to kill more, if they were armed then maybe lives could have been saved

Bring back thre death penalty as well (for all murderers)

What happened to your response to my comment, boyliegladbach? Some statistics, I think, about the number of shooting incidents in Germany. I was just gearing myself up for a reply only to find it's disappeared.

It isn't just a deterrent though. I was the victim of a vicious crime carried out by several armed men some time ago in a country where the police are armed. All but one of the attackers were killed in a police shoot out. I am quite pleased at that result as they were on a spree and no-one else had to suffer as we did at the hands of these scum.

i wrote it, tried to edit it, and lost it!!

it was that people think that because police are armed that there will be 1000s of gun incidents

germany is a lot bigger than us, but well trained poilce staying within their rules of engagment fired a total of 49 warning shots and 36 shots aimed at individuals while pursuing suspects last year. From those incidents, 15 people were injured, and six were killed.

american police put more rounds than that into one person sometimes.

i just think that pepole hear about armed police and think straight away that they will all be running round with a heckler & kock G36 shooting anything that moves. when in fact they would have a standard 9mm pistol harnessed and used in self defence only.

You don't say whether the 15 injured and 6 killed in Germany were innocent and I don't know enough about German society to comment. But neither do I think that arming our police would result in "1000s of gun incidents" or running around with whatever you suggest they might run around with. I don't even know what a standard 9mm pistol is but I guess it could do somebody some harm. It is, of course, purely supposition that if they had been armed then the killers might have thought twice but, equally, I put forward the supposition that people like Moat and others might see it as a bit of a challenge and the situation could become worse.

It's not just a deteerent though.
Sometime ago I, along with several other people, were the victims of a particular nasty crime carried out by several armed thugs. this was in a country where the police were armed. In a subsequent police shoot out all but one of the attackers was shot dead. I am quite pleased that no-one else had to suffer at the hands of these scum as we did. Shame one got away really.