European Law Enforcement Agencies: On Second Thought, Maybe Firearms Would Be Helpful

European Law Enforcement Agencies: On Second Thought, Maybe Firearms Would Be Helpful.

Scotland Yard said Sunday it was increasing the deployment of officers allowed to carry firearms in Britain, where many cling to the image of the unarmed “bobby.” In Belgium, where officials say a terror network was plotting to attack police, officers are again permitted to take their service weapons home.

Fitting that our first no shit Sherlock of the year goes to Scotland Yard.

CO2Insanity: Tired of the CO2 BS and all the other BS in the US and the world.

View Comments (19)

  • Unless they allow the masses to own them as well, this is just an invitation to a total police state. Sadly we've all seen this happen before.

  • About time someone in Great Britan got their heads out of their asses and face the reality that armed officers are an excellent deterrent to crime and criminals.

    • Armed officers are getting more and more common in Britain. I've seen armed police attending what have seemed to be trivial crime scenes (thirty-two MPH, in a thirty, or a dodgy indicator light, perhaps). Around obviously sensitive targets, the police are often armed to the teeth: automatic H&Ks, plus 9mm pistols. Whether that works or not to deter gun-crime, though, I still don't know. I should think it makes Whitehall quite safe, but doesn't help that beleaguered corner-shop, all that much.

      What Joe Redfield said earlier in this thread is still entirely valid. I have no criminal record, but I can't own a handgun in Britain - literally - to save my life. Illegal gun-ownership, on the other hand, has probably never been higher, even if those guns tend to turn up at crime-scenes, just after corpses do.

        • Unless I'm mistaken, the answer would be no, unless you're a wealthy aristocrat.

          {edit}
          Sorry Owen, I didn't see your reply, because I didn't refresh the page before posting.

        • A shotgun, yes, and I think a hunting-rifle, but you have to be able to prove that the firearm is held very securely. When my brother-in-law took out his shotgun to deter burglars at his farmhouse, guess who was the one the police nearly arrested (clue: they never got near the would-be-burglars).

  • menawhile, the UN Small Arms Treaty has gone into effect and most of those countries have ceded their self defense to the United Nations-the most corrupt organization on earth(first only to our US COngress of course).