Mattes55 wrote:
in most EU countries the police don't even carry firearms
Don't know where you've got this impression from, the UK is one of the only countries where firearms aren't standard issue (the policy being that it is better to have a small number of highly-trained armed units, rather than lots of poorly-trained, gung-ho cops). Anyhow, if you knew anything, you'd know that most European countries have police forces which are routinely armed.
In point of fact, many European countries have federal police forces which are actually part of the military: the Gendarmerie in France, Carabinieri in Italy, Guardia Civil in Spain etc. These forces put the US police in their place; if you look at the 2005 NYPD Firearms Discharge Report, only 13% of shots fired at targets more than 8 yards away actually hit their target ololololol