Two-thirds of those asked in a poll TV2 executed, believes that the police should be carrying weapons.
A total of 63.2 percent of those who understood the question believed that the police should be armed, according to the survey conducted by TNS Gallup for TV2. Of the respondents, 36.8 percent were opposed to a general armed police force.
Justice Minister Per-Willy Amundsen answers TV2 that he’s not comfortable that police are not given temporary arms during this time of threat that is imposed by the Police Security Service (PST).
“I can not just arm the general police force,” says Amundsen, explaining:
– I can not provide temporary arms to all the forces. This is decided by the leadership of the police force in each district.
The threshold drawn by Parliament is too high. The best way to solve this is to allow arming of the police so that they are at all times able to respond to a terrorist attack on Norwegian soil, “says Amundsen.
Head of the Police League, Sigve Bolstad, said he would like to see the police armed, but acknowledges that society is not yet ready for it.
“We just have to accept that many people still do not want this and so today we have an unarmed police,” Bolstad says.
© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today
