Should the Police be armed?

Yes guns. 12 people lost their lives because the police didn't have any....

More armed police may= more armed civilians=BAD

I understand what you mean though but it won't stop this sort of thing happening again.

It's not knee jerk in my case.I have believed for sometime that our Police are vunerable to this type of act. I think more than once is too much personally and it seems the Police still have 'lessons to learn' from hungerford. Iam not criticising the ordinary copper in cumbria but really , I think every single police station in the UK should have at least two officers with firearms training and fast access to firearms.

This actually used to be the more frequently the case in the past in post war Britain,when many coppers had either fought in the war or done national service. Having military experience it meant in most Police stations there would be pistols,revolvers and shotguns in secure cabinets , While the ordinary copper would patrol with a truncheon ,there would often be collegues who often worked as detectives who when the need called for it book out a firearm.

Iam not in favour of arming every officer but I do believe the tradgedy in cumbria exposed a problem especially in rural areas with lower crime rates. I think recruiting the right people is a factor ,which means I believe recruits who are ex forces, particularly those who served in the miltary police or who had public order experience in places like iraq and Northern Ireland should be recruited as firearms officers. So there is a greater pool for selection when it comes to specialist units.

The reason so many people died yesterday is because the police were not able to get there in time. Had there been one or two officers in Whitehaven who were armed, he may not have been able to kill so many or they may have caught him before he turned the gun on himself, allowing the families of the innocent to have justice.

I only found out a couple of weeks ago about our Armed Response Unit. Based in Ulverston apparently which seems a bit weird as I would have thought Barrow was the bigger station but there you go.

The police never even saw the guy until he was dead though, so what help would guns have been?

You can't just have armed police squads everywhere just on the off chance that an idiot with a shotgun goes postal. Workington and Whitehaven don't really need armed police squads because this isn't a frequent happening.

Maybe gun training and access to guns that can be used in emergency cases such as this could be a possibility, but might just be a waste of money if they are never going to get use.