UK guns and the Police  

I've lived in the UK for the last 4 years now and I've come across real fear of the guns in this country. And it is not only regarding an average citizen bearing a gun but also regular police force equipped only with a whistle to tackle often heavily armed criminals. Some of the UK readers might say: but we have armed police. It's all good but think of response time-how many armed units are there? Are they gonna make it on time? How many officers got shot because criminals know that they don't have guns and can't fire back? I am affraid it's in consequence to years of washing peoples brains out and telling them what to do. It works in so many other countries out there why it doesn't in Britain?