Let's Talk Guns

In particular the issue of whether or not Police Officers should carry them.

Americans have the right to bear arms through their constitution, so an American can have a Gun with them at any time so long as they have a license.  In the UK we [the public] are not permitted to carry guns in public places etc - if you have a license for a Gun it needs to be stored properly in a Gun Cabinet except when in use for the purpose intended e.g. Hunting etc.

As it is illegal for private citizens to roam the streets with Guns the likelihood of a criminal having a Gun is significantly less than in the USA, therefore any criminal is deemed to be at most, dangerous to the point where several officers may be required to restrain him but not to the point where the chase warrants officers carrying firearms.  Officers are only permitted to use firearms in extreme cases and in a large number of cases Officers will not even be carrying a Gun.

In the event of a criminal being reported as armed and dangerous, then and only then would an Armed Response Unit be dispatched which would include officers carrying Guns.

I personally am happy with this arrangement as I see the complete justification for it. Putting Guns in the Hands of every Police officer leads to trigger happy officers shooting when there is no need, cite: Jean Charles De Menezes who was shot in the head seven times and died at Stockwell Tube Station.

Menezes was later found to be completely innocent, with no connection to any terror plot.

There are a considerably higher number of errors in judgement and fatalities of innocent civilians as a result throughout the USA. You can't bring a person back to life but you can release one from custody who was arrested in error, I know which one I would favour.

On the flip-side, here in Northern Ireland Police Officers are always armed. Now with the same reasoning as above in the case of the USA, given NI's turbulent History, statistically it would be more likely than in the rest of the UK that a criminal may be armed.  More-so there are still dissident groups which are armed and active in NI, so the threat, although significantly less than in the past, does still remain.  Through all this I can perfectly justify Officers here carrying Guns.

Having grown up around this, seeing Officers carrying Guns, and seeing Soldiers carrying Machine Guns when I was young, and looking through the sight of a sniper rifle when I was about 5 or 6, I believe I am quite desensitized to Guns and see it as 'normal' for the Police to carry them.  So much so to the point when I first moved to London I was actually surprised to see Officers weren't armed, if anything it took me a while to figure out how anyone could justify Police Presence as a deterrent if they weren't armed.

I guess my view on this is that it can be justified but depends entirely on the environment the Officers are placed within.  Although I agree with the justification for the Police in the remainder of the UK being unarmed, I still find it a bit unsettling.

So my question to you, should the Police carry Guns as standard issue?