The death of a police officer in the line of duty is a dreadful thing and a great tragedy for all concerned. Anger is an understandable reaction and this anger is frequently "expressed" as a call to arm all British police.

Would that be a good idea? Well, here's a quick set of thought experiments. For each question answer "a", "b" or "c":

1: You're a criminal planning a serious crime. How would knowing that the police would be armed affect the likelihood of you also carrying a gun?

a) Make you more likely to carry a gun
b) Make no difference
c) Make you less likely to carry a gun


2: You are an armed robber. The police appear in the middle of the job. How would knowing that they are armed affect the likelihood of you firing at them?

a) Make you more likely to fire
b) Make no difference
c) Make you less likely to fire


3: You are an innocent civilian. In the unlikely event that the police wrongly mistake you for a dangerous criminal, would you feel safer with them armed or not?

a) Safer with them unarmed
b) No preference
c) Safer with them armed.


If you answered mostly "a":
You realise that arming all British police would be to pander to the ravings of the tabloids and would probably make life more dangerous for both the police and innocent citizens.

If you answered mostly "b":
You realise that there is no justification for arming all British police and we shouldn't make knee-jerk reactions just to keep the tabloid newspapers happy

If you answered mostly "c":
You're seriously deluding yourself and/or you edit a tabloid newspaper.

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Labels: guns, police