“Support for a fully armed police service has grown among the rank and file as [UK] forces confront an unprecedented terrorist threat” theguardian.com reports, popping a pic of a rifle-wielding cop with an ancient cell phone at the top of the post. Nothing to do with the alarming rise in the number of your garden variety knife and gun crimes then. Anyway, a poll on tooling-up was taken and the results are in . . .
One in three (34%) respondents to a poll by the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) were in favour of routine arming of all officers. The proportion was up from less than a quarter (23%) in the previous survey on the issue in 2006. However, two thirds did not support routine arming of all officers.
Yes, there is that. The majority of UK police don’t want themselves and their brother and sister officers to pack heat because . . . who knows? We can only guess.
Maybe it’s because the officers reckon carrying a gun would create an antagonistic relationship between law enforcement and the general public, ratcheting-up the level of violence, increasing the danger for both officers and society. That’s the party line: we don’t want to become like America!
Or maybe British and Welsh police officers feel personally anxious or unqualified to carry a gun. Ditto for their colleagues. If so, what does that tell you about the UK police? Or the UK in general.