Persuasive Essay: Why Police Should Not Be Armed?

In Iceland no police officers are armed, all they have is a small baton. However, it is legal for citizens in Iceland to carry guns with 30 people in 100 have their own guns. With a high number of guns, crimes involving an offensive weapon is very low. The most common crime is drugs. Iceland is also a country that you are unlikely to be murdered in. In 2009 only one person had been murdered in Iceland and in the UK there had been 724 homicides. The population in Iceland in 2009 were 318,499 and now the population is 328,000.

Arguments for and against police officers being armed?

There are many arguments why people think police should and should not be armed. From a survey out of 1,000 people by the Scottish Police Authority there was 53% who agreed and supported that Police Scotland should be

However, there had been no burglary the police officers had been ambush. The 999 phone called had been made from either the killer (Dale Cregan) or someone else phoned for him. One officer died at the scene while the other officer died later in hospital after suffering serious injuries. Although 30% of people disagreed with police officers being armed. With a comment stating “If police seem to want the use of weapons for protection then civilians should also be allowed. Also if young people see police with guns then they are more likely to be intimidated and therefore carry a gun. This means that the society will be influenced and the crime rate could possibly increase.” A case which led to even more violence due to the police being armed would be the London riots. Due to the death of Mark Duggan it began a riot in London that lasted 5 days. Mark Duggan was shot died by a police officer, he was shot about twice and an illegal firearm was taken from the scene. It then began by a couple of hundred who gathered outside the Tottenham police station, some of the crowd became violent and started to set police cars of fire. When being told to disperse the crowd used bottes