In response to forum

Unfortunately, Inspector Gadget's forum is being a pain in the arse to post to. It's actually ignoring posts that I want to make, so I'm having to make it here and hopefully the blog will take a URL to this post.

The whole argument, if you want to put up with a load of posturing and testosterone, is here.

Also, my thoughts on why I originally wanted to join the police, are here.

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Way to pick and choose.

Ireland proves that you can't solve deep rooted problems by guns.

Surgeons. I CAN tell them how to operate; they are paid for either by the public purse or privately. As the person on the receiving end of the services I have a choice and I'll damn well exercise it if I want. It just so happens I've been on the receiving end of malpractice and am having to go to another surgeon despite an apology and promise to put it right from the first. He's already exercised his personal choice while I was asleep and it was a disaster, so no, your analogy doesn't work. It only proves my point that I SHOULD damn well have a say in telling him how to operate.

And as a member of the public, no one has really put forward any compelling reason FOR routine firearms as far as I'm concerned. The hot head language and emotive posturing going on here READS to me as if this forum is full of boys that want power toys.

Give me statistics. Give me facts. The language going on in here only proves that I wouldn't trust some people in here with a firearm even IF my life depended on it.

The number of road deaths in the UK are high. You want to prevent deaths, then get out there and stop the dumb asses who tail gate, who swap lanes instantly without indicating and side swipe you. The foreign truckers whose trucks shouldn't be on the road. The nut cases who drive with hand held phones, shave, put on lipstick, you-name-it-they're-doing-it while driving; rather than the people who take a sip of water out of a bottle, while stationary in a traffic jam on a hot day.

Get some respect in the force so that you can put more scroats away without having to provide fingerprint evidence that they were at the scene.

And yes, I wanted to be in your number. I was prepared to step up and serve on the rank and file, despite warnings from friends who had served their years, some of them in the Met, that the forces wouldn't want me. They were correct. My face doesn't fit. I'll try and hunt down the joke of a letter I had from the Chief Inspector of Sussex Police, the reasons why I was turned down and why he wouldn't investigate further. I could have pushed it and really embarrassed Sussex force but that would be pointless; I wanted to join them, not crush them; but my respect for them went downhill from there.

There is still a lot of internal crap that the police have to sort out, including corruption and elitist attitudes in some officers that have wrecked public opinion. The Commons Library Standard Note on Public Opinion Of The Police in 2010 proves that there is a lot of work to do with public image of the police before ALL officers are trusted with side arms.

What seven bullets in the head tells me is that what lirish said was right. The adrenaline and emotion is not going to suit a lot of officers and the balance of specialist teams we have is doing the job and keeping deaths low.

If there were people that wanted to come on the range with the wrong attitude, it was our job to stop them and either sort out their attitude problem, or stop them from getting on the range. To any officer that wants a firearm for the sake of it, then they should join the relevant area and, if they don't pass testing, then there's probably a reason for it; that under the current rules they're not fit to be on the streets with a firearm.

What are the number of occasions when an officer not on firearms duty, would have to pull their gun? As for the officers that you say should be kicked out of the force for not carrying, then who is going to do the massive amount of educational and social work that it will take to turn our society around? You'd be decimating the force and seriously hamstringing the duties carried out; for what?

You can't easily open fire anyway. When a load of muslim extremists charged a police line in London, you'd still have had to run away; strategically retreat; whatever you want to call it. You couldn't have opened fire on a mob like that. And they know it. You can't even slap an unruly teenager around the ear any more; and they know it.

From the statistics I'm reading, arming every officer is going to result in more heartache than lives saved; and going for the emotive hope that me and mine don't need an officer with a side arm, isn't going to persuade me to shift from that position.

Every time I get behind the wheel, there are statistical odds that I have to live with. Every time I get out of bed there are odds. From the figures I read, the odds of being shot in this country, are minuscule in comparison. I'm always living in hope.

As for the officers who break the law in their dealing with photographers, that's the whole point. These officers are willing to break the law, willingly, and are facing little in the way of consequence. The only question is, how far will they go?