TTAG reader Jonathan Miller writes from France:
“Remember the old story about the sweet British bobby? Armed only with a truncheon and a helmet out of the keystone cops. Englishmen of a certain age will think of Dixon of Dock Green and Z-cars, the Blue Lamp, and the famous police call box pressed into service as a time machine by Dr. Who. Cancel all that. As this remarkable picture from dailymail.co.uk illustrates, the modern British constable is tooled-up in a way that makes the average American SWAT team look under-gunned. I am no expert on this category of hardware (useless plinking at 50m targets with a .22 is more my style), but I think I see H&K machine pistols, Glock sidearms, and a sniper rifle that I can’t identify but definitely cost more than a few bob . . .
It was unfortunate perhaps for the met to be quite so self-revealing but an incident a high noon in the west end of London is hard to hide from the literally thousands of cameras that would have been present, and The Daily Mail, Britain’s emblematic tabloid, was dutifully shocked.
It is worth clicking on this link not only for the photographs, but the comments of the readers, which reveal an insight into the British mentality concerning firearms that one is unlikely to better. Par example . . .
Good, I’m glad they are armed and ready to go and I hope they’d have no qualms in using this equipment if need be. At times our cities are not safe places to be in, especially after 9/11. – Sarah
This is what our country needs…AND MORE OF THEM!!! – Dinxs, Ely, Cambs.
There are commentators who acknowledge the police state implications. Sadly, they may be too late.
I prefer our Country as it used to be. – Angel, UK
As a humble amateur of arms, I would be interested if someone could identify the rifle or anything else, or any errors make in The Mail’s notoriously feeble photo interpretation.”