Why are British police unarmed?

I'm not entirely sure why our police force are unarmed but I think it's ridiculous. Back in the 1950s or earlier, people seeme to have a lot of respect for the police and so they didn't need weapons, but nowadays crime is higher and the London riots of 2011 were an example of just how soft the police are here now. Riot police were pushed back and retreated from youths armed with bricks and knives. If the police had been armed it would've been a different story.

British police are unarmed (apart from batons) because they (the police) prefer it that way and long may it be so.

British police go unarmed, in my opinion, because until lately police in the UK have not had the violent criminals to deal with that other countries do. Being able to purchase firearms is not the reason , as British gun makers are the finest in the world. If that were the case, then the crime rate in the US would be soaring, given the rise in gun purchases, especially since Obama was elected. Crime rates in the US have dropped, The bad guys don 't k now who might be packing heat or what home might belong to an armed, educated citizen. It is interesting that the cities with the highest murder rates are also the ones with the strictest gun laws, Maybe the British, Australian and Canadian lawmakers will come to their sense, admit that confiscating everyone's weapons did NOT make them safer and reimburse the people for the guns that were taken from them, but I won't hold my breath. You poor sods didn't have a Second Amendment, though. COPS (a television series) had a segment filmed in Sacramento, CA. A female officer had been a constable in the UK. She stated that she had worked both with a weapon and without and she would never go back.

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I did some searching and it seems gun use for vilence has been really low and they have strict legislation nowon gun ownership, although I did not see the exact law details listed. This is like in electronics, the theory that the circuit will behave is determined and you test it to see the tolerances are within specs or adjust. Anyway in theory, low gun ownership should mean that the police will not encounter guns. Maybe it is a way to show the public that they are trusted or respected, I don;t know. I remember while in the Navy on shore patrol duty I had an incident. We are given billy clubs to carry, oh boy! So the Israeli quards carry around machine gun with a shoulder strap. I happen to talk with a guards girlfriend without knowing it so I backed off quick.

The British police are not routinely armed. However, there is the firearms squad (SO19) and those at airports and the houses of parliament are armed.

The UK police simply do not want to carry live round fire arms. The public don't want to see them armed either. All police forces in the UK have the power to use plastic baton rounds without consent of parliament or the home office but this is very rarely used.

Again, human rights and liberalism disarmed the cops and brainwashed the brits that cops r unarmed and they r just citizens serving the community, uk sucks

I live in the UK and I think our government are terrified of guns.Pretty much every year police are shot dead or are in a dangerous situation when a gun is needed and when they are killed or loads of other people are killed like the Cumbria shootings for example they always make up crappy excuses or lies.I could go outside and murder as many police officers as I could and I guarantee you they wouldn't even think of arming them.I don't understand why arms dealers don't push more weapons through here the place is a ducking gold mine

thats bull **** their police have bigger guns than anyone else

The police do carry guns, just go to London and you'll see plenty of sub-machine guns in the hands of law-enforcement.

Seriously though, I know what you mean, the regular police officers walking the street right?
The reason why regular street-police don't carry them is that this originates from the formation of the Metropolitan Police Service in the 19th century, when police were not armed, partly to counter public fears and objections concerning armed enforcers as this had been previously seen due to the British Army maintaining order when needed.

Although the British officers are not totally unarmed. Standard issue weapons are the telescopic 'ASP' baton and incapacitation sprays such as CS gas.