by Bill Heaney
Frontline police officers should have access to guns which are securely stored in their vehicles, according to the Scottish Police Federation (SPF).
The organisation, which represents 98% of officers, is backing a model adopted in New Zealand where police are not routinely armed but do have access to weapons.
SPF general secretary David Kennedy also called for all officers to carry Taser electric shock weapons to combat rising levels of violence – and warned that anyone who brandished a knife risked being shot.
The Scottish government said Police Scotland would remain an unarmed force and that its current capability was both appropriate and proportionate.
The SPF, which represents 16,500 officers up to the rank of chief inspector, made the call in a manifesto of measures it believes would improve policing, external as parties prepare to set out their stall for the Holyrood election.
It backs a system introduced in New Zealand in 2012 where Glock handguns and semi-automatic rifles are stored in locked cabinets in vehicles, and officers can seek permission to access them in emergencies.
Currently in Scotland guns are only issued to around 500 authorised firearms officers and the vast majority of police do not have firearms training.
Kennedy believes closures of local police stations and centralisation of specialist teams mean there could be catastrophic delays when an armed response is required.
He told BBC Scotland News: “There’s not enough to cover rural areas.
“Even within towns or cities in Scotland it will be a long time before the firearms team is available.”
SPF general secretary David Kennedy, left, says it can sometimes take too long to get an armed response team to an incident.
Kennedy cited a 2022 murder in the Highlands where a man shot dead his brother-in-law and stabbed his wife before driving off to attack another couple with unarmed police officers in pursuit.
The officers were ordered not to stop the gunman because an armed response unit was being despatched from Inverness, 100 miles away.
Last month a man was jailed for 10 years for chasing a police officer while armed with a chainsaw.
Kennedy said currently about 2,000 Scottish police officers are trained in the use of Tasers but there are too few of the devices, which can incapacitate a suspect, to be issued routinely.
“It’s because of finances, it’s a money thing. It’s nothing to do with safety,” he said.
He added: “Don’t carry a knife, don’t produce a knife on the the streets of Scotland because of the tactics that are in place now, you can be shot.”
Recent figures suggest there are more than 20 assaults on police officers a day, with about a quarter of them resulting in injury, and the trend is upwards.
The SPF “Policing Manifesto 2026” warned the service in Scotland was at a “critical inflection point” after a decade of funding pressures and centralisation.
It called for investment at least in line with inflation and more local decision-making with more officers patrolling the streets, engaging with communities.
The federation pressed for a reversal of “non-attendance policies” for incidents and warned that a shift towards non-custodial sentences, even for violent offenders, could give the appearance that there was “no meaningful deterrent”.
The SPF also wants better psychological support for officers who routinely encounter traumatic situations, as a way of improving staff welfare and retention.
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “All firearms officers undergo robust training which focuses on de-escalation and communication, which is always the primary objective when responding to incidents where there is a potential risk of serious harm.
“A number of statutory measures are in place to allow for independent scrutiny to ensure the use of armed policing resources is both proportionate and justified.”
The Scottish government said it recognised the important role of police officers who often put themselves at risk while protecting the public.
A spokesperson added: “Police Scotland continues to be an unarmed service and our position on that will not change.
“The service has an appropriate and proportionate armed policing capability including both conventional weapons and Taser.
“Deployment of firearms officers remains an operational matter for the Chief Constable, Jo Farrell.”
They said the draft budget for 2026-27 provided “record funding” of more than £1.7bn for policing.
The spokesperson added: “Scotland continues to be a safe place to live with recorded crime down by half since 1991.”
This is simply a ptoposal to arm police with guns.
A police commeny yesterday was that guns should be used when someond has a knife. Presumably that was intendec to convdy the message that anyone with a knife should be shot. Its very much the opening of the door for armed police. A gun, a knife, or what of a bottle, a stick, a baying crowd, or just someone that needs taught a lesson or made an example of.
We seenplent of that recently in the USA. The nurse in Minnesota pushed to the ground, then punched and kicked before thereafter nine bullets being pumped into him as he kay pfosfrate on tbe ground.
Or the guy leaving a pub in London around twenty years ago carrying a wrapoed up table leg for repair. With an Irish accent soneone phoned the police to report him as being suspicicious. And for that the policecxhot him dead. Or the utterly innocent unarned Brazilian man Jean Charles Mendes who had a volley of head shots pumped into him on the London Tube in tbe front of fellow paasengers, His crime for summary execution was tbat cops mis identified him.
Shoot to kill is very real and a policeman with a gun is a man with real power. Arming police as a matter of course is non consenual and changes utterly the citizens relationship with the police. Its a little known fact tgat tge American Right to bear arms was predicated on the thinking tgat it would allow citizens to protoct themselves against bad government that turns against them such as the British, should they try to come back to retake their colony.
As a good idea its not actually turned out that way. 80,000 American citizens die every year at the hands of a gun. Crime, suicide, children through accident – the death toll is incredible. A hollocaust of death and miisery.
Or what of the British army gun massacres of innocent people, Murders by thexstate. Bloody Sunday, Coalisland, Ballymurphy all show how armed authority can act wh3n they are armed.
Arming police is an utterly retrograde step, its something tgat Scotland does not need. But ,maybe this is the prelude taster for the police state that is currently being out into place – digital ID, facial recognition, internet monitoring, juries without trial, car tracking, and much more are all in play.
But maybe im misssing something – eh?