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August 18, 2006
Sign of the Times
by Jack Lee
Almost 20 years ago I was at the home of a Chief Inspector in the UK with a few other police officers. We were just socializing, when I asked them if they would rather carry a firearm, like I did in my job? Their collective answer was a resounding NO! No weapons! They said it would be a liability more than a help, besides the public was not that much of a threat. As you know, the UK has total gun control, firearms in public ownership are extremely rare and are generally kept under lock and key at a license gun club. These officers couldn't imagine a time or circumstance that would warrant a police officer to carry a pistol. Only special shooting teams did that and they were almost never called up. I found this sentiment every place I travelled in England... officers didn't want to carry guns! Back at home, I generally carried several weapons, depending on the situation. When things got really heavy or a drug raid, I carried my personal H-K 93 automatic rifle, with a 30 shot banana clip.
By the way...the Metro Officer in the photo above is carrying an H-K MP5 with a 30 shot banana clip, very similar at first glance to the HK-93 with folding stock ,the only difference is he is using a small 9 mm round and I was using .223 (2x as powerful, same round as M16 takes).
Posted by Post Scripts at August 18, 2006 11:30 AM