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6/25/2015 6:26:22 PM

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Section 4: Guns/General
Subject: Police 1930 CPD Msg# 923762

From:

Mark Freburg Forum Manager

Joined 4/3/2000

To:

TJ Parmele (Read)

Joined 6/1/2005

I would think the Irish would be less surprised by our police. The British are arming more of their special squads and even run armed patrol cars in many areas of London. And then you have the continent, where you have the French, for instance, walking around with SMGs slung. Most of the police forces in Europe carry sidearms, and some carry very state-of-the-art pistols, such as the Germans, the Czechs, and the Slovaks. It seems to be a fallout from the British empire, this not carrying sidearms, perhaps? Although the Australians broke from that early and their coppers carried guns from way back. The Canucks, however didn't--though of course they certainly do now.

For reference, the above message is a reply to a message where:
I have an Irish cousin who is an interviewer for the Garda in Dublin (Garda is the Irish Police Force) and her boyfriend at the time was a 6'4 strapping guy who was awarded the honor of patrolling the streets of Dublin at night armed with OC Spray, an ASP Baton, and a radio along with a pad of paper and a pen. It astonished me. The Irish take great pride in their unarmed police. He told me that the past 3-4 years it had gotten a lot harder to do the job with all of the immigration from the EU coming in where the Garda was getting a lot of declining respect and a lot more pushback from street toughs. He was thinking there was going to be a reckoning one night where a Garda was seriously injured or killed. Since all I had on me in Ireland was a Tactical Pen, I gave it to him and demonstrated what it could be used for. He was happy to get it.

Now, when my cousin was over visiting friends in this area we grabbed dinner with the family. She was astonished at all the gear the police here carry and she about flipped when she saw one of our County's finest (Fairfax County, VA) had an M-4 Carbine in the patrol car. I had to ask her who among the Garda over there in Dublin could carry a firearm. She mentioned only certain detectives were authorized to and they carried S&W Model 10 Revolvers in .38 SPL. They were only used in the most deadly of circumstances. I mentioned that the US had a fairly large gang problem in urban centers and that there were a lot of armed confrontations with the police in comparison to Ireland where it simply doesn't happen.

It was then I happened to mention that I owned a firearms store. To her credit, she didn't freak out and we had a cool discussion on firearms. It made her think.

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