Should all our police officers be armed with guns or Tasers?

Roger Robson, retired teacher, Ivegill: My idea of policing is, they wear no firearms on the street. That’s a great tradition in this country.

But the fact police have backup where necessary from officers with firearms is essential.

Roger Robson I like the idea that we keep guns out of sight as much as possible. We mustn’t become like America where the first option is the gun.

I’ve seen appalling footage of people there being shot by police as they’re walking away.

Increasing the availability of guns for either the public or the police goes together. If you have too many in the hands of the public, the police feel they have to have them. Then they get trigger happy. They use their power because they’ve got it.

We have to aim to not be influenced by terrorism. It’s easy to say that. But I think things can be done more subtly. A quiet check out of an area can be done.

You can make the townscape less vulnerable in some simple ways. For the threat of lorries you can build friendly-looking bollards that stop a tank.

The real soft targets are difficult to protect, like when 30 Britons were shot dead on a beach in Tunisia. You have to be aware of that but it doesn’t mean we stop going to the seaside.

Sgt Suzanne Scott-O'NeillSergeant Suzanne Scott-O’Neill, vice-chairman, Cumbria Police Federation: My own personal view is that our new recruits should be trained in the use of Taser. But I don’t think there’s any wild desire for all our officers to be routinely armed.

Some officers who work in Merseyside, Greater Manchester or London may want it and it’s only fair that they are given the choice.

However it’s not as easy as it sounds to issue firearms routinely to every officer.

There’s a lot more involved than just saying “yes” or “no”. There would be lots of work, lots of training and lots of extra money needed. It would mean every officer having a 10-week firearms course and time for shooting every month and you would need to double or even triple your numbers just to cope with that. You have to ask whether it’s necessary.

If you ask people in the week after the shootings in America or the Derrick Bird shootings, there would probably be a higher level of support for arming the police.

But armed incidents are still generally quite low in this country. If there is any officer who wants to have Taser training then that should be offered to them. But with regard to firearms, I don’t think we’ll be asking for them.

David WilsonDavid Wilson, Allerdale councillor and former London police officer: I worked for the Metropolitan Police for 28 years. Some of that was in the robbery squads of the Met and the Flying Squad.

It involved tracking down armed gangs and trying to catch them in the act.

I’m totally against the police being routinely armed.

The Met have already got specialist units in London.

The members of those units have to undergo all kinds of training and psychological tests before they’re allowed on the streets with a firearm. They can be up and running within minutes.

There are similar units in Cumbria and elsewhere around the country.

The Americans used to say to me “How can British police go out without being armed?”

Communication is a big thing. British police learn to defuse situations.

And it helps that we’re one of the strictest countries in the world for firearms, although people still manage to get illegal weapons.

If the police started carrying guns that would encourage criminals to do the same and you’d end up with a situation like America.

I’m not happy with Tasers either. All firearms should be for specialists.

Ron SmithRon Smith, former chief superintendent, Cumbria police: Let’s not assume that violent incidents never happen in Cumbria. There is the potential for them to occur anywhere, as was illustrated by our own tragic case of Derrick Bird, or indeed in Hungerford, another small town.

There are events like these all over the country, which is why the Police Federation is balloting its members. They are in the front line and will be potentially first on the scene with a terrorist or violent incident.

In this climate it seems sensible for the police service to be equipped with everything they need without putting themselves or the public unduly at risk. You have to balance the notion of policing with consent with the police having the ability to respond appropriately.

But it’s not just a question of handing out guns and saying: “There you are, off you go.” Training is an essential art of being an armed officer and if every officer was armed they would be away from the streets, maintaining their skill levels to ensure that they can use them safely. There would be all the expense involved with that and the purchase of police weapons.

It’s a difficult balance but I don’t think every police officer should be armed routinely.