And it's almost unimaginable and impossible in the UK. A police officer (who, of course, would be unarmed, as they are here), on seeing an individual with what appeared to be a firearm, would call in a specialist Armed Response Unit - armed officers who have had the psychological testing and training which oldude and rap mention.

Mistakes have happened here, but it's rare - considerably rarer than seems to be the case in the US.

But, as has been said on so many of these 'gun' threads, guns are VERY rarely seen here, and there is a completely different attitude to guns in the UK than in the US.