Originally Posted by
Ken Scott
the last thing we need right now is some tommy/erk or matelot blazing away at someone because that someone happened to be non-Caucasian & 'looked at me suspiciously'.
Actually armed Servicemen in UK have a pretty good record of not shooting civvies who give them the evil eye.
There were the paras in Shropshire, but they missed. There was the rather public incident in Gibraltar but they were highly trained. There was the unfortunate incident on HMS Astute (by coincidence I passed by immediately after the event), but of armed guards on the gate, the MPGS, the MOD Police, or Guards in London, nothing IIRC.
The difference is that the police were actively pursuing a suspect whereas military personnel are wholly defensive. When armed in Cyprus we kept our weapons holstered even in the absence of any orders.