guns and cops

Australia has after the late 1990's adopted one of the most strict gun control laws in the world. It has not however done much to restrict the access to guns among the criminal world. While many would argue that its a good thing to make guns illegal there are many who argue the other way and say that it strips people of the ability to defend themselves.

Irrespective of this it is clear that it lowers the level of comprehension of these things in the community. Perhaps this also allows the police to be able to get away with more because they're the only (non military) ones authorized to use them.

One of the regrettable outcomes of this is that the Police seem to have less training and less scrutiny on how to use their guns.

The recent tragic shooting by a police officer in a (clearly bungled) drug raid in Sydney is a case in point. Initial reports of this indicated that the police officer had been shot by a criminal. There was much vehemence and anger invoked by this including many calls for mandatory harsh sentences for anyone "killing a cop"

Ultimately it would seem that he was gunned down by one of his own.

It does not take much searching to find story after story in the newspapers of police shooting people whom are later described as being simply mentally ill.

Its strange that in England (until recently) and in many European and Scandinavian countries that Police using firearms was taken very seriously. Reports and public investigations surround the police using such force.

One view is that we've become infected with the USA mentality of TV cop shows depicting firefights with the bad guys (using automatic weapons and assault rifles) being "taken out" by the policeman with his Glok

right ... folks that's fiction

If we can't tolerate people having access to guns personally then we should not tolerate police using them without excellent and proper training.

To return to that article above, I agree; it is not the fault of the policeman who shot his mate that his mate is dead. It is the fault of a system which does not properly train their forces.

My heart goes out to the copper who shot his mate, he must feel like dirt. But its not entirely his fault as much as it is the system.

The Police force in Australia has to overcome his colonial heritage and start being appropriate to a modern society. I recommend they send their police to Finland or perhaps Sweden to see how things are done over in a non colonial world.