To Zoogster et al:
My suggestion is fully training and arming the Police. Remember Robin Williams's saying:
The British Police, on seeing a fleeing criminal would shout: "Stop! Or I'll say stop again!"
If this had happened on the streets in the US, Europe (France, Greece etc...) where the cops on street beats/ patrols carry at least a holstered .38 revolver, hell; even in my country Nigeria: the cops carry (mainly rusty) Chinese AK 47 clones: the guy would have been brought down earlier with minimal loss to the public. I read somewhere that a Police station near where the Taxi rank shootings happened could only rush out to usher in the wounded and passersby into the station.
Some years ago, I witnessed an old grizzled Nigerian policeman swing his rifle (An old Mark 4, Lee Enfield?) up and take down a crazed drug addict who was rampaging on the street with a machete: he had already decapitated one person, and was hacking at the second victim (Who later died, sadly...) The madman took a round in his ear, was flung a few meters away, and didnt get the chance to kill more people! What is the message here: any gun in the hands of the police, is better than no gun at all...
@Zoogster:
Many people are doing a lot of "re-casting" of Birdshot: so restricting all to only birdshot would not stop a determined person: for good or bad.
My country has restrictions, very tight restrictions on firearms. We are (Barely) permitted to own shotguns for "hunting", and the only ammo available (Black market!) is Birdshot. So many of us did not settle for that.
Check out these:
http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2009/08/24/turning-birdshot-into-slugs-for-self-defense/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/44877118@N04/sets/72157622941618467/
I strongly suggest the police are armed.