The long (un)arm(ed) of the law

The recent crime that left two policewomen dead in a gun and grenade attack has led some to call for the ordinary police to be armed.  The unpleasant individual charged with the killings was also wanted for two murders (one caused by the victim calling those who slaughtered his son ‘cowards’ – seems a very apt description to me) and four attempted murders and knew he couldn’t avoid the police forever and so decided to take down two of them before handing himself in to the law.  There is no guarantee that had the two WPCs been carrying lethal weapons they would still be alive today.

Thankfully, 82% of the policeforce also recognise that, preferring to keep guns in the hands of special armed response units.  I am fiercely opposed to our bobbies walking around with loaded weapons – in differing from other countries that do, it is a sign that, despite sometimes horrendous and heinous villainy, generally we are civilised enough not to need to do so.  One of the most prominent figures in my head is that of American policemen and women killed by gunshot, the majority are killed by a criminal (at close quarters, obviously) grabbing the cop’s gun and turning it on the owner.  It is a shocking statistic, but regarded by many Americans as just one of those things.

The opportunity for more accidents abound as well.  The IPCC would be overloaded with cases where a police weapon was deployed and fired, legitimately or not.  But maybe if the police were armed, Andrew Mitchell, the government chief whip, might show a bit more respect for the lawmen guarding No. 10 instead of swearing at them and calling them ‘plebs’ (though apologising, he denied using such language, effectively labelling the policeman a liar - or at best, getting confused - in the process) all because he was asked to go through a side entrance, instead of being let in through the main one.