UK cops were known not to carry guns. Over the twentieth century gun violence generally increased in England and the murder rate went up 150% in the twentieth century. In more recent decades youth violence has become more of a problem and we increasingly have seen special squads of British police being armed.
I visited the UK twice in the 1980s and both times I saw police armed with submachineguns at Heathrow. At that time you did NOT see that at American airports. I haven't been to an American airport since 9/11/01 and don't really know what the TSA types carry there.
In the British Isles, an increasing problem with violent armed criminals means that, if you're a cop and want to be able to deal with this situation, having a gun is necessary. Someone who is willing to put a bullet through your brain is probably not likely to acquiesce if you can only ask desperatly, "please don't murder me," but if that same officer has a handgun he atleast has a chance to off the badguy before he's "offed" by the badguy.
Clear now?
So, how many police officers have been killed in the United Kingdom in 2010, per 100,000?
How has this number changed from, say, 1950?
That is to say, how likely is a British LEO to be murdered?
The answer of course is that the thread to British LEOs from actual murders is
completely negligible.
In the year 2010, five British police officers have been killed in the line of duty. Every single one of them died in a traffic accident. Not
one English cop had been murdered.
NOT A SINGLE ONE. SourceIn the year 2011
one British police officer had been murdered by a terrorist bombing (something you will hopefully agree a firearm would not protect against), two officers died of a
heart failure on duty, and one died from an internal hemmorage.
http://www.policememorial.org.uk/index.php?page=roll-2011It takes us until 2012 to have two police officers - TWO! - who died of gunshot wounds, though one of them died of the consequences of a wound inflicted in 2010.
http://www.policememorial.org.uk/index.php?page=roll-2012Again: a police officer is a likely in England to just keel over and die of a heart attack on duty as he is to be shot dead.
Police murders in England have always been fantastically low
source, but in fact they have actually been declining over the past two decades.
In other words: The average British civilian is actually spectacularly more likely to be murdered than a British police officer.
And indeed, British police officers
overwhelmingly oppose arming the police. Thus say
the polls.