"You don't think anything of a uniformed officer walking his beat and being armed, what's the difference?"

Our coppers don't carry guns in the UK, except for specialist firearms squads so we never see guns, only at airports. To me, seeing someone out of uniform with a gun would make me very nervous (seeing someone in uniform with one gives me the jitters).

But then we were brought up and live in different countries, so no surprise we react differently to guns.