Should the police be armed?

[BrilloPad]

BBC News - Britain's first armed police on routine patrol

[MicrosoftBob]

I wouldn't trust them not to abuse their powers, add guns to the mix and it's a bit scary

[VectraMan]

How has this happened so quietly? Surely it's a big change to our society that we now routinely have armed police, so I would have expected this to be something that would be debated in parliament and discussed ad nauseam on the telly. Yet it seems it's snuk in with barely a whisper.

[Old Greg]

It's only in Scotland, so presumably it's in preparation for the civil unrest following rUK's imposition of a Buckfast embargo.

[d000hg]

How has this happened so quietly? Surely it's a big change to our society that we now routinely have armed police, so I would have expected this to be something that would be debated in parliament and discussed ad nauseam on the telly. Yet it seems it's snuk in with barely a whisper.

Maybe they were previously allowed to, but didn't choose to exercise that power?

[CloudWalker]

Police Officer with Tazzer = Yes
Armed Responce with MP5 = Yes
PCSO with Gun ! = F**k NO!