More armed police - do you feel safer ?

gandt armed police officers are a bit intimidating, but I would not hesitate to approach any police officer...

I can't say that armed police officers make me feel more comfortable, it does make me think "What's up that they are needed".

more innocent people will be shot

Reassuring to know - that's their job after all.

Not sure where they all are though? I spent the day at The Olympic Park yesterday, swimming, then cinema and shops at Westfield. No armed police in sight, OR maybe we're so used to them we don't notice? I'm off to Heathrow today to meet a flight, so will keep an eye out.

I'd definitely ask a firearms policeman a question, one with big a dog might be a different matter!

I agree GandT automatic weapons would intimidate me and I probably wouldn't approach unless in dire need of help. I suppose we better get used to it as I can't see things changing anytime soon.

When the police force announce that there will be more police on the streets they actually mean that current police officers will work 12 hour shifts!

I'm not sure if it was Stalin or Hitler who said "Its better to shoot 10 innocent people than to let 1 guilty person go free."

If you are shot dead, by accident, by a policeman, and your relatives can prove it, the HM will pay for your funeral.

I can't see what else can be done, we must get a bigger gun than the one that the terrorist has got, and we must be prepared.

Not better if you are one of the ten innocent people

Here in France armed police are patrolling the main South of France beaches and say there is an armed presence in most tourist areas ...but there were no visible security measures when I visited my local beach the other day .....or maybe I just didnt see them ! I think it is a good idea if it makes people feel more secure ...but they cannot spread them everywhere and anyway, the terrorists are probably not going to strike in places where they know there will be a police presence, which is the problem with terrorism ...they like to keep people frightened ....no idea what the definitive answer is ?

This does annoy me slightly. London will not be the only place that would be a target for a terrorist attack in the UK. You can put all the safeguards in place but there are hundreds of venues in places all over that would be unmanned police wise and easier to target.

Scared to think that children will see gun carrying as the norm. Just the look of guns scares me.

I certainly don't feel any safer. Europe has shown us that police, army etc on the streets makes not an iota of difference if the terrorist is intent on carrying out his/her barbarity.

Armed police don't intimidate me - they are just bods.

Arms on the street makes the country less not more safe. One of the things that has been said about the comparative dearth of successful terror attacks in the UK is that it is down to the difficulty of obtaining firearms here. If the police carry weapons then the bad guys will feel they have to get hold of them.

Not that I think that the police have killed any innocent people lately, just 'innocent' ones according to the definition of one side of the political debate. All of the high profile shootings have been of nefarious villains going about some form of villainy or, in the case of some, looking as if they were. If an armed member of the police tells you to stop, you stop.

Recently on a 3 day visit to London, I was surprised to see far more Police presence on day 2 at the stations, than there had been on day 1. I assumed there had been some sort of alert.

I then reflected on what I had seen on day 1, far more station staff in fluorescent jackets sweeping, mending etc. It made me wonder how many plain clothes armed police are around London.

As a Lononer I do find it a mixture of reassurance and alarm.

Whats it like being shot at. I don't know and I'm pretty sure that most of the police with guns don't ether, so when a shot is heard I can run, a policeman can't he must investigate, with his gun ready, I,m afraid I would shot anyone who looks out of place, so I,m not a very good policeman, but their again I've always known that and I don't need to wait until theirs an incident to find out.

No, their visible presence will be a deterrent and yes, it does reassure me. Sometimes the concourse at Euston has quite a lot and I find myself wondering if they know something we don't. A woman transport police officer got on my underground train yesterday, did one stop in our carriage, moved on to another and so on. The train was very quiet but it was reassuring to know there are transport police about. As to whether she was armed? Probably not.

Sad that we need this kind of protection now, but need it we do. I am just grateful that there are men and women who are willing to protect me in these dangerous times. The moment they shoot someone they are suspended and can face years of stress for having had to make a split second decision about a potentially explosive situation. I am not happy with remarks like 'More innocent people will be shot' - please can someone tell me what a policeman or woman can manage to do with a phone and a standard issue wooden stick in the face of an armed terrorist? And would you like that person armed with nothing to be your loved one? Or indeed, would you like to be caught up in an horrific situation in danger of death and the people who are prepared to die for you - as the police and armed forces are - might have nothing to protect you and themselves? they have to do a job that none envy, and I am just grateful that they do; I would give every major city half an hour before anarchy took over without our police force, so if they need to be armed, sadly, they must be.

Rosina, is an armed terrorist an innocent person?

Lilyflower, you support killing a person who looks as if they going to carry out a villainous etc?

We were around the West End, Trafalgar Sq and Horse Guards parade, every police officer had either an automatic weapon carried in a threatening manner or a holstered sidearm. Perhaps there was a security warning that day.

I was the ones with the automatic weapons carried across their chests that I would steer clear of.

I have been on the wrong end of a gun in Atlanta, being aimed at me by an airport officer, thank God he didn't fire, but it was frightening as he was obviously prepared to if I did not do exactly as he said.

I worked in London. Never felt threatened at any time. I just hope that the issue of firearms doesn't mean an escalation in their use. The USA is an example to the whole world of policing gone mad and bad. I hope that the UK trains their officers better.

I haven't been to London in years so if the queen is going to invite me to a garden party, she can come to the Midlands because I'm not going their

I'm uneasy about anyone needing arms - when I was young, I was told that most European policemen were armed (don't know if that was true or just propaganda), but I do feel that if you allow anyone to carry weapons, the "bad men" will get bigger and more powerful ones. When I started teaching in a South London Girls' Comprehensive in the early 70s, there was a staffroom concern that some 14-year-old girls were bringing in knives. Bravado or security?

I agree with Angela, why only London. Anyone else remember the riots about 5 years ago? They started in London and then announced that police were being brought in from the rest of the country. No surprise then that riots happened in all the places those police were from.

Where has London suddenly got all these extra police from?

When making your home secure it is suggested you think like a burglar so surely we should now be thinking like a terrorist. If you want to stop tourism, damage London, if you want to frighten everyone you might think differently!

Anniebach, no an armed terrorist is certainly not an innocent person. I haven't said that ...quite the reverse.

No. Doesn't make me feel safer at all. They're not going to discourage terrorists in search of martyrdom and why else would they be needed? Arguably they just might stop a potential terrorist before they do any harm but the the likelihood of them being in the right place at the right time is negligible. If they have a tip off they can already deploy specialist armed officers so what is the point of routinely armed patrols?

The American trigger happy police are an awful example of shoot first ask questions later but I suppose it would also be wise to look at countries closer to home, where police are routinely armed, for incidences of 'accidental' shootings before claiming that carrying arms would escalate such incidents.