> I'm not accustomed to seeing police carrying anything more than a holstered service pistol.
More to the point, you've been trained think that is normal, in countries where guns aren't legal, the very sight of a gun would strike fear into people.
I remember traveling to the UK from the US as a kid with my family. In the airport there were police holding fully automatic rifles. That scared me. I had never seen something like that. I was thinking "WTF is going on in the UK??". I of course had no idea that the UK was supposed to be "gun free".
The only time I remember seeing police/security people in the US with automatic weapons (in person) was at the airport right after Sept. 11th. I have seen police holding (semi)automatic weapons in several countries now. It is much scarier than the standard holstered pistol you see in the US.
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> I'm not accustomed to seeing police carrying anything more than a holstered service pistol.
More to the point, you've been trained think that is normal, in countries where guns aren't legal, the very sight of a gun would strike fear into people.
I remember traveling to the UK from the US as a kid with my family. In the airport there were police holding fully automatic rifles. That scared me. I had never seen something like that. I was thinking "WTF is going on in the UK??". I of course had no idea that the UK was supposed to be "gun free".
The only time I remember seeing police/security people in the US with automatic weapons (in person) was at the airport right after Sept. 11th. I have seen police holding (semi)automatic weapons in several countries now. It is much scarier than the standard holstered pistol you see in the US.
You only see that at airports and stations. Ordinary British police don't carry guns at all.