SHOULD WE ARM THE POLICE?

After the terrible events which occurred yesterday in Manchester, many people want to see more armed police, but is that really what we need?

Personally, I think arming the police would be the wrong thing to do. Yes, having two police officers killed is terrible, and it shouldn’t happen, but we mustn’t overreact by giving all of our officers guns.

You only have to look to the US to know that wouldn’t stop officers being shot. If anything, it would make it worse because more criminals would carry weapons, making the streets more dangerous for everybody. In fact, in the US, many officers are shot before they are even able to draw their weapons.

I don’t know what can be done to protect our police officers, who do a wonderful job protecting our communities, but perhaps equipping officers with tasers would be a better solution than giving them guns.

After all, we have policing by consent in this country, and arming the police would just push the police and the public further apart - something we could certainly do without.

The shocking events have also seen more people calling for the reintroduction of the death penalty, but that's a debate for another day, and one I completely disagree with.