So there's a few police forces that do not routinely arm their officers, among them the UK.
What POD would it take for the British police to be routinely armed these days, and what would the consequences be?
I know that the PSNI, MoD police and some others carry firearms routinely, all forces have firearms officers and that some areas such as airports have armed police on patrol. However there are less than 7,000 firearms officers in the UK.
What I'm referring to is that ordinary response/patrol/beat officers carry firearms, as is done in Germany, the US and (I think) Australia?