Halfapenguin.com
not just sub but full blown
10:17, 19 Mar 2007
I was wondering through gatwick today (waiting for a train i was allowed to catch).
When i was walking to my train quite casually 2 cops walked past in full flak jackets carrying vicious looking machine guns. I know i'm biased and think that the police should not carry lethal weaponry and should rely a bit more on guile and wits, but I'm trying to set that aside for my opinion now.
A gun of any description is a lethal weapon, that can be used to protect people from a threat, however a well trained individual should be able to do with one bullet what 20 bullets from a machine gun can do.
I can see 2 counter arguments to mine,
First that it may be easier to hit a threat with an automatic weapon. However if the armed officers are not trained to hit with one or maybe 2 shotsthen i do worry about the wisdom of putting such badly trained officers on the streets with such lethal technology. I don't want to be mown down by the people there for my protection...
The second argument is that a machine gun (in single shot mode) will be superior for hitting long range targets. Looking at Gatwick airport there are a few areas big enough for this to become a factor, but then surely a 'sniper rifle' might be better since it is designed for long range fire rather a machine gun which is capable of long range fire.
I doubt that the police would change their policies, but i would certainly feel less threatened by police with pistols than police with machine guns.
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