I'm suggesting that if you're like Britain you don't need a semi-totalitarian regime of gunmen on every corner. This is mere hear-say, but when I first told my dad what degree I wanted to do, he remarked on the difference between British and US cops - he was physically restrained by a friend when pulled over by a cop. He'd tried to get out of the car and explain the situation to the policeman, and the friend had restrained him in his seat as the officer walked up out of (he says) honest-to-god fear he would be shot.
From speaking to ex-cops, the ASP is capable of breaking bones with a correctly executed strike - you don't need a pistol when you're unlikely to get a gunman, and the average response time for a trio of what are basically SWAT is something like 5 minutes across all of the largest city in the nation.
There isn't enough of a reason to hand every police officer in Britain with a deadly weapon for the purposes of killing. Not only that, but it would reduce police numbers in the UK, as (obviously) not every UK cop has to pass marksmanship tests.