I've been dragged into a basement by gun-toting police, who then proceeded to kick the living shit out of me. No, I never felt safer living in a country where the cops were armed - because it simply breeds a situation where more people get arms. There are solutions to dealing with knife-wielding nutters, giving the police munitions is not it. The police suffer, as do all the public services, from a crippling level of paperwork, ridiculous inspection regimes and criminal underfunding. The thoroughness of the training coppers receive in their specialities has ebbed away. Give the police money, give them proper support again (instead of Group IV), give them more numbers, give them comprehensive ongoing self defence training and give them hours instead of meaningless targets - but don't give them bullets. Agreed. It's a no from me. The guy had a death wish. He was going to stab someone whether that Officer had a gun or not. If he had a gun, could he have unholstered and shot him? Did he have a taser? Why didn't he use that? My understanding is he had his taser but chose to apprehend the guy physically(?) No one knows at this point. Arming the Police, however, wont stop attacks like this, or the one on Jo Cox, or the Paris attack, or the Bastille attack, or 7/7. Stopped Jean Charles De Menezes, though.