British Police?

The UK police do have armed officers, although only a small number in each force. I believe that we do not need to arm more officers with firearms.

Each force within England and Wales have Firearms Departments, which operate to provide an adequate response to the criminal use of firearms. This is done by having patrolling ARV's (Armed Response Vehicles), available to respond to spontaneous incidents.

Armed officers also conduct pre-planned firearms operations to arrest individuals, following a risk assessment of the individual. Tactics used all depends on the nature of the risk.

At present the the numbers of firearms officers is adequate. Yes we hear of more shootings, however having more firearms officers on the streets will not negate this. The shootings will still occur. What we do need is robust sentencing to a) Take offenders off the streets for a long time and b) Send out the right message to all the other people who carry and use firearms.

A recent survey by th Police Federation showed that the vast majority of UK officers do not want to be armed.

Very rarelly do officers come face to face with armed criminals. We will all remember recent incidents where UK officers were shot and killed attending incidents. Having a firearm will not necessarily prevent this. On the occasions that I remember the officers were responding to incidents where no firearm was mentioned. On one occasion the officer was a fireams officer and was shot before he had time to react to the threat.

My personal opinion, which is now coming to fruition is that response officers are armed with Taser. These are being trialled on non-firearms officers in 6 UK forces. The biggest threat to those officers is from edged weapons. Hopefully this will endeavour to give those officers the protection they need and the capability to deal with such subjects.

There are armed units in Britain however the majority of officers do not carry firearms.

The police federation usually has a vote on whether officers wish to carry firearms every five or ten years, but in every vote so far the majority of officers have voted against the routine arming of all police officers.

In fact an overwhelming majority of 82 per cent stated that they do not want all officers to be routinely armed on duty in the last federation vote in 2006. This is particularly significant given that there has been almost no change in police officers’ opinions since the previous survey in 1995.

The issue has been debated for over a hundred years. In fact the Metropolitan Police back in 1884, after the murders of two constables, were given permission from the Commissioner of the day, to carry revolvers during uniformed night time patrols.

These were called 'Comforters' and each Officer would make up their own mind if they wished to carry them.

This was the nearest we have ever been to a fully armed service and that was over a hundred years ago.

This remained the case until 1936 when the revolvers were taken off the constables and kept locked in a cupboard back at the station and signed out only when needed.

The Specialised Metropolitan Police Firearms Department started back in December 1966 as the direct result of the murders of three plain clothes officers by armed robbers.

In the beginning the department was solely responsible for training officers in the use of police firearms and safe tactics. Since then the department has evolved and today is responsible for most operational deployments within the Metropolitan Police Area.

British police forces now have dedicated Armed Response Vehicles patrolling the streets 24 hours a day and can rapidly respond to any firearms related incident.

There are also seperate armed teams made up of Specialised Firearms Officers (SFO's) who have a similar role to that of American Police SWAT Teams.

There aren't enough because all the black boys in south London have them to shoot each other with.

Cos most Brits still use their fists and think carrying a gun is for cowards and *******, so we don't have such a gun problem as the US. We are men over here, not tough cos "we strapped"...tough cos we have a history of being a true warrior nation with respect for our enemy's. Only fools over here who use guns are silly little kids influenced by dick heads in american TV and shows like gangland. In my day, if you were in a gang, you never used a weapon. nothing tough about carrying a gun. Our police don't need to as we don't pull a gun every time we fall out and do not have a gun culture. we prefer to live as civilized humans. we fall out.

They do not carry guns because there is not a lot of crime. Although, if there is one unfortunate event, Special Firearm Command units report rapidly to the scene. But Britain does have the Great SAS and the SBS, as well as MI6 and MI5.

UK Police, they carry stick as same Mr Bean

Every police force in the UK has trained firearms teams. Not all firearms officers carry firearms routinely. If a potential firearms incident occurs then firearms officers will be called out and issued with their firearms for the duration of the incident. Not all police officers would want to be armed.

Because in the uk we dont have guns

I think the policy is based on an assumption that if the police carry guns then more criminals will. That argument doesn't hold water for me, but that's another question.

They do, but in specialised teams. I think it's to do with the fact that UK citizens are not allowed to carry guns. Would make the police to powerful to be trusted with them.