I doubt it. Although the threat from Irish republican terrorists is diminishing the uk as a whole is threatened by new kinds of threats. Islamic extremism, organised crime, simple thugs and physcopaths. It's time the mainland developed their mindsets. They are too attached to the fact that the Bobby is the symbol of English law and order.SteveW wrote:If the current situation in Northern Ireland continues to improve to a point where the security is no more heightened than Wales/Scotland/England I wonder if the police will give up their weapons?TomBoyNI wrote:Coming from Northern Ireland, an area of the U.K. Where all police are armed I can say yes. Arm all police. Off duty and on duty. Taking here a real life uk example the police do not go round drawing weapons needlessly.Gedge wrote:Absolutely not....here is no proof that such action could prevent an attack and it ends up with every minor encounter resulting in guns being drawn and people being shot...
We need tighter security at high risk sites and a stop to the decimation of police numbers and resources ...no need for more guns....( terrorist will always find a weak spot...just have to make it harder for them to find..)
Every use of firearms is examined by a third party and scuntinised by many. Simple put we do not have Hollywood heroes running about but well trained officers who can initially reapond to many incidents types than their colleagues on the mainland would not be well enough equipped to deal with it.
Time to realise the baddies are armed so the good guys need to be too. The days of the Bobby armed only with a truncheon is outdated and dangerous.
But what now is he equipped to deal with. A traffic collision and two guys fighting outside a pub. That's it. Bring weapons into the equation and they are not properly tooled to deal with this and rely on specialised units. Most other European police forces are armed and rightly so.
I'm not pro gun by the way but I am pro armed police to protect people. Obviously it isn't going to work 100% of the time. But it will help.