xizzles

The others might not have been saved but had Mr Palmer been adequately armed, he might still be alive today - and in my opinion, that's one less life senselessly taken.

BadgeIsBack

Agree with Zulu we need to arm the police and I say this as someone who stands by and applauds the 'British way in warfare'. (In the military sense that's not being on full auto the whole time!)
Arming a policeman might reduce these random and opportunistic attacks. You can shoot through a window of a car, hit tyres etc.

The only problem I see is that weapon handling needs to be taught from an early point in training and sending middle-aged bobbies away for a few weeks is probably not enough initially.

I know as a nation we pride ourselves on our restraint but if the great nations of the Germans and French can arm so can we.

DaveLovesDee

I can see why you'd want the arming of Police, but there have been high-profile mistakes when it's only specialist officers who are armed with lethal weapons.

Jean-Charles de Menezes

Harry Stanley

Colin Farmer

And those are just a few of the incidents in the UK. Google has hundreds of entries regarding similar incidents in the U.S.

Firearms officers in the UK go through very tough tests to become qualified, and to remain so. It's unrealistic to put every Police officer through them.

Arming every Police officer will eventually (not may, will) lead to more wrongful deaths. What happened to the Police officer is tragic, but no less so than when PC Yvonne Fletcher died, or when PC Keith Blakelock were murdered.

RIP to those who've fallen from the thin blue line, but arming British Police is a no-no for me. Especially as pulling out a firearm is pretty much a last resort for British Police officers, and by the time the average officer would need to use one, it's too late to draw it. And going in with guns out only escalates a situation instead of defusing it.

Beoz

What we don't know - had the racist murderer not been disabled by an armed cop at distance by the use of a gun, could he have gone on to kill more.

Or had a cop been able to disable the racist murderer at distance earlier on, perhaps a life or 2 may have been spared.

GarryP

I tend to agree.

In a situation where most of the public are unarmed, gun readily available to the police are only likely to make things worse. We DON'T want the situation the US has got itself into.

However, I do think the disposition of armed officers at the Palace of Westminster should have been better, and that body armour should have been worn.

xizzles

Taser-arm them. Non-lethal, but still works.

moneypenny20

Providing you're close enough.

DaveLovesDee

Stab vests are probably more appropriate for most officers, and many are issued with them

Many UK Police are armed with Tasers. Again, by the time you need to use them, it's too late to draw them sometimes. In a crowd around Parliament, if the Police officer saw the threat before he was stabbed, I'd be surprised.

xizzles

I have to wonder - if the terrorist was close enough to stab Mr Palmer, surely, the terrorist was close enough to be tasered.

moneypenny20

In this particular incident then yes but if you're up against a shooter then no. I thought all coppers in and around Westminster wore some sort of protective vest regardless of whether they were armed. Obviously not!

DaveLovesDee

Sometimes the threat isn't visible until they're close enough to strike. In which case, if you're lucky, you're defending yourself with your bare hands. And fighting for your life.

You're not always going to be able to get to your weapon at that point.

xizzles

Sure. In those cases. In other cases, with an appropriate weapon and the training to use it, the taking of one life would have saved many others.

OzTennis

It's speculation of course what could have happened. What could have happened is that the guy ran over an armed officer and had a powerful weapon to do more damage than he did. One of the biggest arguments against arming police to the teeth is that more and more criminals would arm themselves to the teeth.

Amazulu

Some of the replies above show that people are just not getting it. The world has changed. The UK has changed. Both for the worst. Decades of British government incompetence and connivance (and therefore by extension, the apathy and ignorance of the electorate) has created a situation in the UK where there are thousands of (mainly muslim) UK citizens who hate the country and what it stands for and are now prepared to commit acts of violence against the state and population. The Britain you knew before has gone, and part of that - unarmed police officers has to go too. Even the most namby pamby, PC, socialist countries in the world - countries like Norway, Sweden, Canada have the vast majority of policemen armed. In the face of what the UK is now up against, how can unarmed coppers protect the public and themselves? Answer is they can't. PC Palmer would be alive today if he'd dropped this c*** with a couple of 9 mils. End of

The British have nobody else to blame for the current situation but themselves, so time to wake up, arm up, harden up and face that fact and the reality. They will win in the end but much blood will be spilt to get there

Amazulu

All police officers - wherever they are - should be armed with handguns at all times when on duty. To not do so in 2017 is criminally negligent