Cops with guns

[Richard Slater]

Lived near Gatwick for the last 20 years at certain times of the year and after certain incidents there were armed police with sub-machine guns (MP5's at a guess). Passing through Gatwick and there was one officer with what was probably an assault rifle (my Call of Duty eye says it looked a bit like a M16 - but I am probably wrong in that).

When did armed police start carrying assault rifles? as far as I could see he was the only one with that type of weapon, others were carrying smaller guns.

[divine]

In terms of SMGs and ARs I didn't think the UK police really used much other than H&K equipment and I can't think of anything they make that looks like an M16 (the G36 for example, looks nothing like it).

So... either I don't know all that much about police weaponry, or it wasn't police but a more specialist unit of some sort.

edit - Wiki has a page for everything!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...United_Kingdom

Did it look like anything listed there?

[Von Smallhausen]

Originally Posted by Richard Slater

Lived near Gatwick for the last 20 years at certain times of the year and after certain incidents there were armed police with sub-machine guns (MP5's at a guess). Passing through Gatwick and there was one officer with what was probably an assault rifle (my Call of Duty eye says it looked a bit like a M16 - but I am probably wrong in that).

When did armed police start carrying assault rifles? as far as I could see he was the only one with that type of weapon, others were carrying smaller guns.

The MP5 is a superb and accurate SMG but its limitation is in the 9mm round it fires as most bog standard body armours will stop it.

More and more force are adopting carbine assault rifles with a .223in / 5.56mm calibre as it has far better stopping power than a 9mm round and will not be stopped by body armours unless they are of a more heavy duty and specialist nature.

It is unlikely to be a rifle of the M-16 family you saw although I know of forces that have trialled the M4 carbine.

The most widely used assault carbines in police use are the Heckler & Koch G36C and Sig 556 although they are both limited to semi-automatic fire only and the Sig is getting long in the tooth now.

[Richard Slater]

Didn't really look like any of those, reason I thought it was a M16 was the butt of the gun looked similar to this:



The above is an M4... although it looked longer than that... admittedly the officer may have been smaller than the average American which may throw the scale off. As I say most of my gun knowledge comes from watching TV and playing computer games which may not be the best source of knowledge.

[Von Smallhausen]

The extendable butt on many rifles look pretty similar these days.

MP5, G36 etc. They all have retractable butt options.

[Richard Slater]

Probably just that then, may not have been an Assault Rifle just a gun with a retractable butt.

Just re-read your first post... is it purely the stopping power of Carbines over SMGs or are people walking around using body armour causing mischief, you would think that body armour would make someone quite conspicuous.

[Darrin]

You get someone skinny like me (6'3" 165lbs) wearing standard Kevlar body armour I look like your bog standard rugby player if I'm wearing a jacket. So, no. Someone wearing plenty of armour to stop a 9mm round wouldn't be worthy of a second glance.

Someone wearing enough to stop a .223/5.56mm round would look like a 16th century knight...

[Gaijin]

My Dad knows one maybe two of the armed officers at Gatwick, and the G36c is pretty much standard amongst them now. Every one i've seen when picking my lady up for the airport is a G36C with a G17 sidearm.

I didn't think the penetration of the 5.56mm NATO cartridge was that great in any case as it is a tumbling/fragmenting round?

I've seen many a debate on it's suitability in the military as it simply isn't putting bodies on the ground as it were.

This was quite interesting (if a little sensationalist)

[Garp]

Sorry.. had to be done given the thread title

[A Place of Light]

Originally Posted by Darrin

Someone wearing enough to stop a .223/5.56mm round would look like a 16th century knight...

I disagree. You'd need more specialised (read more expensive) body armour, but it doesn't necessarily mean more bulky. Indeed, in some cases it's even easier to conceal than conventional armour.