Questions about arming British police?

Total clueless question

The whole point is that there are not many criminals that carry firearms and if the police were armed, it would only encourage more to do the same. It is far better the way it is.

I refute your statement that so meany police have been killed with guns ,256 police officers have been shot in the past one hundred years,that includes northern Ireland,
The police have armed officers to deal with armed criminals ,but the incidence of gun use by criminals is so small the average copper doesn't need or want a gun.

You wrote this "There have been so many incidents where unared police officers on duty have been shot and killed.", but you do not prove it.
So, lets look at FACTS.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_British_police_officers_killed_in_the_line_of_duty

Since the gun ban (November 1987) to today oiffcers who have die to shooting, stabbing or ASSAULTED DURING ARREST IS
26
the previous 27 years it was
36, so also given population increase since the 1960s it is safer to be a police officer today than it has ever been !!
So, your assumption is FALSE.

Actually, the FAU are called when you call "999", if it involves guns or knives or any danger to the public, then they are called out by the dispatcher not by the police on scene.

"Would there be a lot less deaths if they have a weapon to defend themselves or someone else with? "
No, our homicide rate is at a 40 year low, at less than 1 in 100,000 in the population.
Here in London (biggest city, most likely to have gun vioence !),
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/murder-rate-hits-42yearlow-in-london-8462974.html
"The number of gun murders also fell to six, compared to 14 the previous year, while knife murders dropped to 47 from 56.", that's right in London and urban population of 8 million ONLY 6 PEOPLE died from guns !! Even though the police were not armed.

As a city it rates (with 99 homicides and 8 million people) 1.125 per 100K), it rates safer than ANY city in the USA EXCEPT, LINCOLN, NEBRASKA and Plano, Texas ! It's safer in London than Portland, Oregon or Austin , Texas !!

Again you state this " A lot of criminals have guns anyway,", the UK is an island with a strong anti gun ideology, it's actually very difficult to get a gun, so criminals tend to end up "leasing guns", we make it hard to get a gun in the UK. We just DO NOT HAVE YOUR GUN MENTALITY in the UK.

Northern Ireland is a different part of the UK, mainly because guns where imported across formm the irish border, these guns come from Libya paid for by American MONEY ! THXS for that ! It's a different situation, and as such it needs a different solution to the rest of the UK.

Ethan, I have proved to you using facts and data that your assumptions are false.
You need to understand the UK is NOT THE USA. We don't wish to have your gun problem introdcued via the Police being armed.

lastly, the POLICE THEMSELVES DO NOT WANT TO BE ARMED.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/347090/Police-don-t-want-to-be-armed
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/9553111/Do-we-really-want-to-arm-our-police.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19641398

Please remember that the USA is a very different country to the UK.

NB
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2079428/Big-rise-number-U-S-police-officers-killed-work.html
In 2011, "The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund released the report today showing that 173 officers from across the country died in the line of duty" as luck would have it, in 2011 NOT A SINGLE POLICE OFFICERS WAS KILLED in the line of duty. But in 2012, 5 officers where kille din the line of duty, given the populaiton ratio of 6;1, this would be the same as18 in the USA population. So what less than the 137 !! Again, guns wouldn't make us safer.

You have not the slightest idea of what you're talking about have you?

"There have been so many incidents where unared police officers on duty have been shot and killed" - Could you possibly provide some statistics or example of this? I would have to look into this more but personally I don't like the idea of everyone having guns. If police have guns you can be ensured that more members of the public will carry overtime which will lead to even more problems, not to mention stories that you here in places where police do carry and kill innocent people because they're trigger happy or innocent people die in the crossfire. I think it would lead to more deaths rather than decreasing any. At the end of the day guns kill people, the more guns the more people will end up dead. If criminals with guns were such a threat to police and the general public then I'm sure that police will be armed.

Much much less murders in Britain per captia than America.

Police have shot 50 completely innocent people dead since 1992 and have not been successfully prosecuted.

1,500 deaths in police custody since 1992 according to the police and no successful prosecutions.

Police Shoot to Kill policy now in force; illegal under British common law, OK under EU corpus juris.

1

arm all major police forces like city of london and met police, gmp, merseyside, west midlands, wales police, other rural police forces can put guns in cars or remain unarmed