Quote:
Originally Posted by danielf
I hadn't looked at the actual poll, but looking at it, it does seem that the wording is a little ambiguous. It's also worth bearing in mind that the wider poll is about what measures are acceptable in combatting terrorism, which is likely to skew the results. Having said that, it wouldn't surprise me if approximately half the population wouldn't object to the police routinely carrying firearms.
|
Context is king, as Sparkle rightly pointed out. If you ask people if they think the polis should be routinely armed at the same time as you're making them remember all the nasty things terrorists can do, it's not surprising if you get a healthy level of support for the proposition.
Note, however, that the BBC also observes this afternoon that the idea of routine arming enjoys really rather low levels of support amongst the police themselves, comments from serving officers in this thread notwithstanding.