

Why British police don’t have guns - mtgx
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19641398

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jgrahamc
Last year I looked into the number of British police officers killed (on the
mainland) by firearms. It was 68 in 110 years.

[http://blog.jgc.org/2011/08/number-of-police-officers-
shot-d...](http://blog.jgc.org/2011/08/number-of-police-officers-shot-dead-
in.html)

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praptak
Well, if a policeman carries a gun and is obliged by law to use it when
stopping criminals, then it automatically makes encounters with armed
criminals into a Voldemort vs Harry "only one can live" situation. I can see
policemen not wanting to go this route.

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anamax
> Well, if a policeman carries a gun and is obliged by law to use it when
> stopping criminals

Where are police "obliged by law" to use guns or any other weapon?

My car has a spare tire. I'm not "obliged" to use it.

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treerock
> My car has a spare tire. I'm not "obliged" to use it.

But you probably would if you got a flat tyre.

Also, when the the police are given guns they will also be given training and
procedures that will require them to use their guns in certain situations.

~~~
anamax
> Also, when the the police are given guns they will also be given training
> and procedures that will require them to use their guns in certain
> situations.

I've socialized and trained with various police trainers. I've asked them
about when police are "required" to act.

With one exception (a pedant who talked about the supreme court cases that I
mentioned elsewhere), they all said "never".

Where can I find out more about this "training and procedures that will
require them to use guns"?

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ktizo
If UK police had sidearms as standard, we would get a criminal arms race and
far more police would get shot. And thankfully, most of the police know this,
which is one of the main reasons they don't want guns. For the same reason, if
they were brought in, it would be almost impossible to go back again.

