Police and guns
I’m british – live in Sweden yes.
Arm British police – yes.
British police have an armed force, that in minutes can be deployed anywhere. Not to the delight of a local farmer I knew, who was killed because he shot a police dog – after blowing out half of the local pub shooting up into the roof- not harming anyone – he was in love with the barmaid, who didn’t share his affections. The police “took him out” mainly because of the dog I suspect? We Brits are big deal animal lovers!!!!!!
I think that if the local bobby (cop for you Americans) had been armed this poor farmer would have got a cup of tea in the local “cop -shop” and 2 years for illegal weapons- out after 9 months???
Point of this blog? -would anyone risk the future of their family, and their right to go home in the evening, without the right to protect themselves? Nah. We would not. Killing is an awful aspect, hopefully seldom used.
Arm the police in the UK I say
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Sounds like you’re a tad confused. You advocate arming police then use just about the worst possible example to, apparently, justify it?
Oh course I’m confused Way. I was bored and half drunk when I wrote the blog.
I saw that nothing had happened for ages blogwise, and just started writing.
The blog was ok for being “brainless”.
The poor farmer just got into my rifle sights for as little reason as the police who shot him.
I still maintain that the police have a right to go home to their wife and children unharmed – arming them would at least give them a chance – not to be slaughtered, out of hand, by illicit firearms.
Hi Dave, its a sad state of affairs but I think maybe the time has come for our police to be armed, I hope it would act as a deterrent to criminals knowing they could be shot, its just that there could be times when you get the odd trigger happy policeman who for whatever reason could shoot without good reason……we should be allowed to protect ourselves and our property……..buttttt
would hate to see the gun laws becoming more relaxed
Uk has great gun laws Star – no doubt. Who wants to do two years for posesssing grandfathers service revolver? I would like to see it at that level! The Police are not dealing with us ordinary folks.
Luvs ya
In the USA the police have always been armed and many are trigger happy. More and more citizens are armed. The US does not need to be copied. I have always admired the British way.
I understand that fully rose – then when confronted by a killer why on earth shouldn’t cops in the UK be able to at least protect themselves in their last moments? – I remember when the worst thing in our town was a group of teenagers in a doorway. I t was an illegal “gathering” . It’s not like that anymore in the UK – drugs and violence took over. Maybe we should blog about the causes of degeneration in our world?
Hmmmm, interesting, police with no guns. How is that working for you Brits? You don’t need to answer that, it was answered in your blog. I love learning things from this site every time I come.
Suzan – it really does work! – British gun law is amonst the hardest in the world – as an upstanding fellow – I would still go to jail for possesion of firearms that were not licenced. License is very – very difficult to obtain.
My point was not the right of ordinary folks to own guns, just the police – and each cop would have the right to refuse to carry a weapon if he so deemed.
The US did not have a standing army in the early years and citizens were required to have a gun and to protect themselves against enemies or serve in the military if called. We have kept the tradition of an armed citizenry even though we have a standing military.
The US has an abominable number of deaths from guns. We do not need to be copies. We do need to be studied because I think we are an example of what happens with trigger happy cops.
As an American, I agree the number of deaths in the US from gun violence is appalling. But so are the numbers of auto deaths, drug deaths, domestic violence deaths and the number of deaths where police are involved are also terrible, as is the number of police killed in the line of duty.
As you can see there are no easy answers . More people die from auto accidents than gun violence, most gun violence does not involve legal firearms . so do you think more gun control will help ?
Jw…as an american I gather that you believe in the right to bear arms….we have very strict gun control laws in Australia…it doesnt mean no one gets killed by guns but there is no comparison to what happens in the US….obviously gun control works! Its pretty rare for mass shootings here…or in most countries where the right to bear arms is non existent…and please dont tell me guns dont kill people!!!
Ozzie your right I’m a card carrying member of NRA and proud of it . Perhaps you should google murder rates per population , not just guns but all murders I think you’ll be surprised. It makes little difference if your killed by a hand gun knife or club .
I live near Orlando and could not imagine what it was like to hide in a bathroom stall while a gunman shoots into the stall and I can not defend my self ! I think I’ll keep my weapons thank you.
I have lived in the UK for all of my 70 years and have always deplored violence. However having seen it esculate on the streets of Britain I now find myself, albeit reluctantly, all in favour of arming all of our police force. We have to vigorously protect our bobbies on the beat and fight fire with fire. Sadly innocent people may be hurt but lay the blame at the criminals feet.
I’m with Scorpio 100%.
Well, I was in the special constable for several years in my early twenty’s. there were about 5 of us patrolling a town centre when about 120 youths (2 gangs ) who were meeting up for a fight and were somewhat inebriated decided collectively it would be nice to spend some time and energy on us. needless to say it was the longest half hour of my life and left me with some disturbing memory’s but I for one am glad the police aren’t armed (With exception of the armed teams).