Brickbat: Why Most British Cops Don't Carry Guns

A Nottinghamshire, England, police "firearms expert" accidentally fired his gun while doing a demonstration for a group of children, slightly injuring a 7-year-old girl when she was hit in the face by a shell casing. The students had won a visit to the police station as a prize in a coloring competition.

Comments

[Brian D]

Clearly the officer needs more weapons training. A US cop would have shot her in the face.

[UnCivilServant]

"But the only place I see anything come out of the gun is on the side here..." -britcop.

[Agile Cyborg]

"Oh, shit, and it burrrrns."

[Old Man With Candy]

Cue classic YouTube video of the cop bragging to the classroom about how he's an expert at handling firearms, then shoots himself.

[Old Man With Candy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am-Qdx6vky0

[AlmightyJB]

That was beautiful.

[Rich]

"Now, let's bring this other gun out here!"

You gotta admire his determination to see the lecture through.

[Adans smith]

The gun 'just went off'.Procedures were followed said Captain Benny Hill

[Suthenboy]

Who could forget this classic?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zw-jTCNZSmY

I have come to associate the word 'expert' with incompetents who took a three hour class and got a certificate.

[Old Man With Candy]

That video looks familiar...

[Suthenboy]

You beat me on the draw.

[BakedPenguin]

Me, too. It was the first thing I thought of reading the article.

[invisible furry hand]

Slightly OT: Really interesting article from Britain

The rise and fall of the gunless gangster: It wasn't lack of firearms that kept them from shooting. It was something else

[AlmightyJB]

I don't understand. Why don't they just outlaw guns. Sheesh.

[BakedPenguin]

Exactly. As we've learned in the US, laws are magic, and intentions always prevail. Maybe their legislators don't have the same legal pixie dust ours do.

[BakedPenguin]

Nice link, ifh. That site also has an interesting (if possibly apocryphal) article on the imminent decline of Labour.

[invisible furry hand]

Likewise with your link. There are certainly some similarities with our own Labor party's policy woes, but our preferential voting means Labor's electoral fortunes aren't so parlous as Labour's. First past the post really is a bitch.

[BakedPenguin]

We've already seen the US voters reject our homegrown equivalent of Labour. I only wish I had an iota of faith that the Republicans would actually govern substantially differently.

[Suthenboy]

Interesting line from that article:

"Socialism in one country isn't an option any more."

[Suthenboy]

I should have mentioned - Carbon taxes and the whole climate change charade is nothing more than global socialism thinly disguised.

[AlmightyJB]

Said the 7 year old girl "Awesome, I want a gun"

[UnCivilServant]

"Then you'll have to Emigrate."

[Just jim]

Its sad that england and its right to arms, which was the basis for our second amendment, has basially been abrogated so that your regular englishman can't even *gasp* keep a gun in their home to defend themselves. Of course they allowed that to happen to themselves. Who gives a shit if the cops have guns. Disarm them all would be the best policy anyways.

[Suthenboy]

Oh, it goes further than that. They are not allowed to defend themselves with a gun or with anything else, in any manner. Even the 'defend themselves' part is not allowed.

[ubik]

Was just about to post the above!

It's true, if in the course of defending yourself, wife or kids against an intruder you injure the perpertrator guess who the law says is the victim.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

It drives me ballistic. It's like the law completely ignores the criminal and goes straight for the law-abiding citizen. I argued with someone over this and they were adamant about never needing to use force against even an intruder. I was flabbergasted and wanted to punch them in the face.

[BakedPenguin]

Better yet - break into their house and take stuff.

[ubik]

You must sacrifice yourself for the "greater good"...only the state has the right to use force to preserve its own interests.

[Redmanfms]

I had a British friend explain it to me as what he described as Total State Theory. The reason that criminals receive protection from the citizenry is that they are, in fact, themselves unpaid agents of the state. Since removing restrictions from the citizenry is clearly verboten, the only answer to increasingly more violent and brazen criminals is to increase the power of the State to stop them.

I thought he was off his rocker when he told me this, but looking at how completely assbackwards (and getting worse) British jurisprudence is, I've started to believe him.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Same up here in Canada. However, I seem to recall reading here and in the news at large where even in some parts of the U.S. people defending themselves with a gun (on their property) can be threatened with prosecution.

[ubik]

Think it varies from state to state, i.e. in TX you shoot the intruder and receive just plaudits for dealing with the situation yourself and are congratulated for being a responsible citizen. That same situation would probably not prevail in Mass. However, at least the right to defend yourself is pretty well established here in all states.

[UnCivilServant]

It depends on proportionality of force. Technically that schlub who shot the burglars in the back while they were already running away (and thus no longer a threat) should have been tried for murder.

[Harvard]

But celebrated for excellent marksmanship.

[JD the elder]

That is not really true. Yes, there have been cases where the injured criminal has been held as some kind of victim, but it is not a general principle of English law. For example, shopkeeper defends himself against a machete-wielding robber, using a metal pole:
http://www.express.co.uk/news/.....lding-raid

Nothing about the shopkeeper being in legal trouble there. (BTW, that story is also great proof that spear beats sword.)

England's bad enough that we don't have to make stuff up to make them look worse.

[Just jim]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new.....k-ins.html

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Land of Benny Hill.

[ubik]

Hey, don't diss Benny Hill.

[Bill Dalasio]

Meh. I really don't see anything to get worked up about on this story. It was an accident and not like the guy was intentionally bullying anybody, as far as we know. Like AlmightyJB suggested, the little girl might well have thought it was cool.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

And thus will be sent to a deprogramming gulag since she may be a candidate for wanting to like guns in the future.

It's all about PREVENTION.

[Bill Dalasio]

Okay, now THAT would get me worked up.

[Agile Cyborg]

She probably thought it burnt, actually.

[Rich]

The students had won a visit to the police station as a prize in a coloring competition.

So, students of colo(u)r?

[Swiss Servator, spare a franc?]

*narrows gaze*

[some guy]

I'm sure it was a traumatizing experience. THAT will teach them to win.

[straffinrun]

What was the second place prize? A trip to Dunphy's basement?

[Almanian!]

"Hey! Don't touch the Morgan Fairchild posters!"

[AlgerHiss]

This is an example regarding a couple of myths:

Cops are experts on guns and driving cars fast.

Cops are neither - not by a long shot.

[adavaas]

I'm not usually one to question anything that makes cops look idiotic, but I do feel compelled to point out the little girl took a "minor injury" to her LIPS after being hit in the face with a shell casing.

Really? That constitutes an injury worth reporting on? The fact that a cop had an ND at all is bad, an ND in front of a bunch of children is worse, but it seems misleading to even bother to report on such a negligible wound. I've been hit in the face with shell casings a few times, pretty much anyone who hangs out at a firing range long enough can probably say likewise.

The cop is an idiot, yes, but I still don't like the needless child-was-in-danger panic.