Give police the firepower they need to protect themselves from daily violence

IThose under influence of drugs can be almost impossible to restrain

’m all in favour of arming our police service. It’s way past time to give those who put their lives on the line for us every day a level playing field when it comes to protecting you, and me, and themselves.

They face more danger than we can comprehend on an hourly and daily basis.

Two out of every five officers have been attacked in the last year and 22% in the last three months.

It’s little wonder that many of those who face real and escalating danger on our behalf are now saying enough is enough.

In a survey by the Scottish Police Federation, 53% of officers said they would like access to a handgun.

Another 75% said they would be prepared to be trained in the use of handguns, although this wouldn’t mean routinely arming them.

Scots travel all over the world – or we did pre-Covid.

And the vast majority of countries we visit have police forces which are routinely armed or have swift access to arms.

There are folk who happily accept that police officers in these places can protect others and themselves from danger while wearing a sidearm.

But the same people think our police officers should be unarmed in the face of machetes, baseball bats and guns. They are guilty of stunning hypocrisy. And if they think trying to apprehend dangerous individuals with a small metal stick, or a spray which has to be used within a very close distance to be effective, is fair to the public or the officers then they’re delusional.

Many of the dangerous folk police deal with are under the influence of drugs which make them impervious to pain and to reason.

They can also act with a strength far beyond that which they possess sober.

Officers are being seriously assaulted on a daily basis while protecting you and me.

There is no good reason why our police should face deranged and dangerous individuals or groups wielding weapons, or people of such physical size that they cannot be safely restrained from harming the public, with tools inadequate to deal with the dramatic changes in society.

The level of disinformation about what the police service have at their disposal in dealing with the bad and the mad is staggering.

Many folk think all officers carry Tasers, for instance.

But these are issued only to a very small minority of our 17,000-strong force and they aren’t always effective.

Someone armed with a knife or machete can close a 10-yard gap on an officer in the blink of an eye.

And those who are under the influence of drugs can be almost physically impossible to restrain for half a dozen officers.

To expect someone’s son, daughter, wife, or husband, to put their lives on the line for you and me, without giving them the best available protection is a form of cowardice.

Try putting yourself in a police officer’s place.

I’ve seen reports from a couple of journalists who’ve gone on patrol with forces in England.

They completed a proper no holds barred, full week’s shift with response officers.

And they had their eyes well and truly opened to the range of dangers which can present themselves in an instant.

The anti-police brigade are inevitably moon howlers who would run a mile from the dangers they expect officers to face on behalf of all of us.

Ask them how they would deal with a domestic assault where a male – and it usually is a male – is off his face on drink or drugs and armed with a large kitchen knife in a small kitchen, where a fraction of a second could see death dealt out.

Those critics who think crazed and dangerous individuals in these circumstances are open to reasoned debate must live on a different planet.

Protection and preservation of life is an officer’s first duty and it’s outrageous to think their own lives shouldn’t be included in that.

Sean Connery’s famous line in the Untouchables movie about bringing a knife to a gunfight is apt.

Criminals are bringing knives regularly but our police – unlike in most other countries in the world – have only a small extendable metal stick and a spray to protect you, me and them.

Police are our frontline against evil. It’s becoming an unequal battle for them against criminals who view life, and your rights and mine and those of police officers with contempt and often hatred. The nonsense that if we arm our police then the criminals will tool up too is a knee-jerk response by junior Marxist types who like to see the police as tools of the capitalist state or some such juvenile guff.

It’s said that for the triumph of evil it’s only necessary that good men and women do nothing.

Our police face evil every day on our behalf, and they do something.

They put themselves in harm’s way to prevent evil befalling us.

They deserve to have whatever it takes to protect all of us and them.

GUN LAW: Police are armed in many countries across the world – so why not in Scotland as they face increasing danger?