Amazulu

I'm sure they are. UK specialised firearms police have been responsible for some unjustified deaths too.

geordiebloke

I don't believe that criminals arm themselves with a view to "taking on the police" They arm themselves to commit their crimes and to take on other criminals. They will carry guns if they can get hold of them and I believe, if there is insufficient deterrent to put them off.
Now if that deterrent is substantial prison sentences when caught, or the fear of getting shot by an armed cop, is subject to debate.

geordiebloke

No, only a very small number of UK cops are firearms trained.

Amazulu

I'm agreeing with you!

caretaker

IIRC those NYPD cops shot the man with the gun, (killing him), and 1 bystander - all the others were wounded by concrete chips from the sidewalk or shards of fragmented bullets riccocheting off the sidewalk.
Mikelincs, re:how effective against the grenade - he fired 13 shots with a handgun first; possible outcomes are hard to guess since they were ambushed, but being armed might of saved one or both of them.
I'm in Canada and lots of people have guns here. We have gun controls but they aren't as stringent as those in Australia. Even though we're pretty well armed, I believe our rate of gun crime is significantly lower than in the US. Police here have always been armed and I find the argument that police having guns is a root cause of criminals getting guns ridiculous.
The illegal handguns that robbers use here are mostly smuggled over the border from the US and sold and traded through various baddies. Where do they get them in Australia? Do they come from Asia?

Amazulu

I agree. Apart from mad places like Mexico and SA, crooks try and avoid the cops as much as possible, and in most western countries, shooting a policeman is going to see you spend a huge amount of time in prison, if not the rest of your life.

knockoff nige

This comes down to education. If we were able to miseducate baddies that guns are less effective in crime than giant inflatable bananas, we'd be seeing far greater survival chances in favour of the good guys.

bingobob777

I think we can all be fairly sure that even with the vast majority of UK police being unarmed, they've still managed to murder more innocent people than there have been murdered police

bingobob777

Bollox there's 0.001% of them and 99.999% of the rest of the population.

It's our country not theirs ffs. The law should only change if that's what the people want.

Amazulu

Agree. Politicians should make this decision, and we elect the politicians.

It should not be up to police officers.

knockoff nige

Eh? You want police officers to be protected and want to tell them how they should be protected even if they prefer other means? Get out of the ******* clouds.

bingobob777

Let's be honest, alot of cops are untrustworthy imbeciles who slid into policework due to a lack of other options.

Do you honestly think we should let them decide how they protect us? Remebering that our taxes pay for all this?

Amazulu

Police work for the government
The government tell the police what to do. Not the other way round
The people elect the government

Please don't start getting personal. Trust me, you don't want to go down that road.

knockoff nige

I think police who have proven themselves and are far more aware of what their job entails, should be making these decisions. I doubt there's a vote on guns amongst traffic police.

knockoff nige

Which is exactly the way it is, so nothing needs to change.