wrote

often, and yet I understand it's far from common for them to pull a
weapon on anyone, and they hardly ever actually fire a shot.

Indeed. I forget exactly, but I recall reading that in the last 10
years or so they've (the Met) only shot 10 innocent people (or was it

20?). I never recall hearing, however, how many gun waving criminals
they
managed to shoot in the same timespan. It'd be an interesting
comparison -- anyone got any accurate data?

If you mean "shot and killed".

http://www.justice.gov.uk/docs/coron...d-reissued.pdf

Whole of E&W

England and Wales Number of verdicts {to 2007}
Verdict 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
2005 2006 2007
Homicide, of which:
killed lawfully 1 4 6 1 2 3 2 4 2 6 1 5 4 2 2

Includes those killed by ordinary citizens of course.

In the US this is about 1/3 of the total, see the FBI uniform crime
reports http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/01cius.htm
spreadsheets showing (for 2001) a total of 472, 308 by police/LEOs and
164 of which 138 by firearm
"The killing of a felon, during the commission of a felony, by a
private citizen."

--
Mike D