The Brits are fond of their traditions of unarmed police even if it no longer matches the reality. The EU is essentially open borders and once the Warsaw pact collapsed all sorts of guns and heavier stuff turned up on the black markets.

The law abiding citizens are totally disarmed while the government frets about kitchen knives but if you aren't law abiding you can buy a real AK or RPG.

There are more armed cops than there used to be but there is a level of crime there that doesn't happen outside of inner city hellholes in the US. I asked a Brit friend about how the unarmed cops dealt with gang controlled neighborhoods there. He said that the cops don't go into those places. It really sucks if you are not a gangster and live there.

Steve