No

The police should be a calming measure, not a threat of violence. By asking the police to not resort to escalation, we ask them to be better at negotiation; spend the money on training for communication and de-escalation.

An Emory University did a multi-year meta study analysing the effects of militarising the police in the United States and showed no link between the militarisation and reduction in crime. THis shows pretty conclusively that such policies have nothing to do with reality and are purely vibes based.

People if colour are ten times more likely to be stopped and searched by police, now imagine how many more people of colour would be unjustly killed if those police were armed

The police have sufficient training and equipment to enforce the law. They also have the ability to use limited force to detain someone. The use of any lethal weapons should not be generalised amongst the police force but only limited to specialised units who are specifically trained for high risk situations.

Their main abuse of their weapons has killed innocent victims: black people / gay people / disabled people. They should not use military weapons as then it increases their power and people will be scared of them.

Many police have mental health issues that cause them to become derailed due to the services they have to provide.

People if colour are ten times more likely to be stopped and searched by police, now imagine how many more people of colour would be unjustly killed if those police were armed

Black men are more likely to be stopped and searched by police. The head of the met has even acknowledge that institutional racism exists within the police force. Whether conscious or unconscious biases can and will lead to injuries and death of innocent civilians.

Look at America and at the amount of police shootings involving innocent people and typically black or LGBTQ communities. We would be condoning that as well as creating a way for criminals to acquire guns. Also the argument can be made that if the police need guns to protect themselves, so do we which happens to fortify my previous point of guns being in the wrong hands.

Look at the death rate in the USA and fatal shootings compared to the UK, nothing needs to change in that department

Only 40% of people trust the police as of 2023. I beleive thus would go down if the police carried military grade weapons. Only 29 of the 602 homicides in the UK between 22/23 were done using firearms.

look at the troubles in northern ireland where irish citizens seen officers with machine guns as provocative and threatening, when the machine guns went away after gfa peace has been matained in the majority for 26 years

People of colour are ten times more likely to be stopped and searched by police, now imagine how many more people of colour would be unjustly killed if those police were armed. Serious consequences to police who use their armour inadequately.