A (higly improved) knock-out or stun device should be enough to capture suspects and criminals. If you want to kill them, you need arms and bullets like we use now. I envision guards always having an guard drone around ensuring their safety and communicating(monitoring) with base and surrounding drones (teams). Maybe even having the drones lethal arms so if nessesary they can protect with lethal force. But permission should always come from base.

Try firing a gun in space you have a ballistic projectile, wont just kill or injure someone many forget in space outside the space station enclosure is a deadly vacum and radiation.Life support systems can only do so much.

Dart the assailants with etropine or similar; gas em if they are too thick skinned. Put them through restriction and counseling while making sure its clear their behavior is unacceptable and their citizenship is at stake. 

You can't shoot guns in space anyways...your station will bust open.

Or maybe they will bust out the lazers and vaporize peole on the spot. Justice.lol

I agree with the notion that Asgardian Police carry and use  fireams  or any other lethal weapons. Estimated 10 % population suffered from Psychopath and  they  are not visible

Sidearms should be a must however these should obviously be non projectiles for reasons i hope to god everyone understands... Space + hole in ship = everyone dead.. The side arms should be a version of a more effective taser. nothing more.. I would hope that before anyone boards any future transport they are thoroughly checked and vetted before boarding. 

Fn firearms makes a nonlithel firearm for police. They are the company that makes the guns in the old stargate tv show.

The Asgardian Police should at least have in their arsenal firearms in case civil unrest escaletes to a wide spread revolution. Although it may be true that at this stage of our civilization every single one of our fellow countrymen has agreed to uphold the laws of Asgardia, we cannot underestimate the fact that in the end, children may be born into our society and may not be too thrilled with some of the laws his ancestors agreed.

Alternative must be taken into account as well to arm our law enforcement with non-lethal weapons such as pepper sprays or water cannons, but we must bear in mind that conditions in space will not be like earth, even if we manage to produce artificial gravity. The perforation of the hull of the space station will be one of our top most concerns and starting shooting around in a confined space will not go very well with that. Having said that, I have to highlight the importance of having a capable police to maintain crime at a minimum.

Although I agree that the use of firearms sounds quite disproportionate at the moment, no one can hope to predict the future, and as the old saying goes: "Prepare for the worst and expect the best".

That weapon I was refer to has about 5 ammunition types some are pepper type. All of them look to be friable or beanbag type.  Compressed gas propelled. 

Asgardian Police? Is that like a "super moderator"? Or what? Seriously, what are you talking about? This is a website - nothing more, nothing less. Since "Asgardia" is not, and will never be, a "Nation", then I don't think you need police, and I'm certain you don't need police with guns.

I'm picturing something like, "Hey! Stop posting or I shoot!" BANG!!

<ROFL>

Currently, all weapons proposed to be banned, or allowed by  police (?military in the long term future?) will not function in a  small, zero-g environment. Tasers have propellent. Newton's 2nd law of  physics. Every action has an opposite action (very roughly and loosely  defined). Fire a taser, gun (lethal or non-lethal bullets) will "push"  you away. Plus, if you do not hit your intended target, you could get  explosive decompression or damage the equipment (hello, life support,  communications, control, etc). Pepper spray, besides having propellent,  can mess up the filitration units, just like crumbs can from food. If we  manage to get on flights like our current astronaughts, then people  should be restricted from having guns. Besides, we won't always have  police, marshalls on all flights. Guns are legal in the USA, but we  can't take them on plane flights, into government buildings, schools,  bars, any place that posts a sign that prohibits weapons, which include  hospitals, colleges, etc. But criminals still bring them along. The  unarmed are the victims with no way of defending themselves.

If  we manage to build our own space station (moon, Mars, or beyond),  weapons should not be banned, unless the physical environment prohibits  it. Another thing to keep in mind is the fact that Asgardians are coming  from all over the entire Earth, with a variety of different cultures.  Criminals will always arm themselves with something to inflict damage. I  was a correction officer for a bit and you would be surprised at how  inventive a prisoner is.

Also, until we have our own  fleet of space vehicles and space stations, we will have to conform to  the host station and their rules. If I leave the USA to go on vacation  in Germany, I must obey their laws. I have to obey their Polizei (German  for police).

Our police will have problems enforcing  crime at the moment, as our citizens reside in a very large amount of  countries physically. The US may allow Interpol and other countries to  give the US information to apprehend a criminal, but police from another  country can not just show up and "walk the beat". It requires going  through many international channels (and politics) to get your criminal.

Until  our great nation has it's own physical space stations, space hub,  planetary stations, and transportation, our police ( and military as we  grow potentially, just saying), our governmental political  representatives will have to work with ALL other nations, governments,  etc. This would be international public policy that our nation will have  to use.

Yes

The thought process for this, about this, needs to be out of the typical box.  Two of the founding statements is "Peace" & "Unity."  Which should be considered first and foremost.

I've seen several of you suggest the less-than-lethal options of OC spray and tasers.  Since this would be in a sealed environment, they are not the best of ideas.  Add to this that some people just aren't affected by these, especially people with mental derangements and/or chemical addictions.  The electricity coming out of a taser shouldn't enough to "fry" or disable advanced electrical systems like we should have in a space station or colony.  Sometimes it's not even enough to slow a human being down.  The OC spray contaminates anything it comes into contact with, and wouldn't be a good idea in a seal atmospheric system.  And it also doesn't effect some people.  I don't believe either of these would be good ideas for a security force in space.  Some have mention tranquilizers as an option.  Not a good idea, as they don't have an instant effect and must be dosed properly for the target's body weight - too much can kill them, too little won't effect them.  Some have mention salt rounds, bean-bag rounds and some electro-shock rounds.  These are the same as the OC spray and tazers - they just don't effect some people.  The armament for the security should be effective, instant and be dependable.

Some have even made comments like "if the police don't want to fight, then they shouldn't have signed up for the job."  Which is true.  But, officers that get into physical fights get injured.  Injured officers require medical attention.  Then they'll need either light duty assignments to recover, or medical leave to heal from the injuries.  One of the primary goals of a police/security force, besides protecting citizens and arresting bad guys, is to not get injured.  That saves wear & tear on their bodies, saves the agency time and money on workman's comp (not to mention the Asgardia government), and keeps the medical staff from having to devote time to repairing the police officers and not taking care of the citizens.

Perhaps a different approach for space security, on stations and on sealed system colonies, is needed.  I realize that what I'm about to suggest would an extra expense to any & all future construction endeavors, but all structures built should be compartmentalized (which they would be anyways), or modular construction, so they can be sealed off from the rest of the structure.  These modules should also be made of very durable materials (ie - they could take a beating and still function).  There would also have to be CCTV cameras in all the modules (except private areas).  That way security could monitor all areas, and if for some reason a fight, riot, or some other mass disturbance occurred, that specific module could be sealed off from other areas and the oxygen level dropped low enough to render the people inside unconscious.  Although I do think that the security teams on all space platforms need to have access to some kind of lethal weapons, but I believe they should be of a different design that what we have now.  As has been mentioned by several of you before - a projectile weapon in a space station could cause more harm than good.  Perhaps this is one of the new technologies that we could work on to develop for future use.  This is just an idea to hopefully spark some brainstorming for better ideas.

Surface facilities, such as those on Earth, should have an armed force.  One of the things that human cultures excel at is trying to kill and destroy anything and anyone that is different from them, for the silliest of reasons.  For this reason, Asgardia should have an armed police/military force on the ground.  Just because of some of the reasons some of you have suggested - diverge groups that, for what ever reason, don't think we should /be in space/try for racial unity/try for religious harmony/try to be the best that we can - our nation would need to be able to protect itself, and it's citizens and property, from those that might wish us harm.

I guess, to sum up my answer is - Yes, I think the police force should have lethal armament, instantly available to them 24/7, no matter where they are stationed, because humanity always finds a way to become violent for no logical reason.

First of all, consider the environment we will be in. The use of projectile weapon, in unlikely case as a stray projectile, present a danger to the structural integrity of the satelite. Granted, the structure's strength won't be that weak. But also consider the wear and tear that the structure will undergo. So, in my opinion, the use of firearms and such projectile weaponry should be prohibited.

On the other hand, it is foolish to let the peacekeeping force, either it's army or police, to go to the field literally unarmed. I propose that all peacekeeping personnel to be equipped with martial arts knowledge and non-projectile weaponry such as baton or prodding stick. These equipment are to be used only in case of emergency and not to be used willy-nilly. This way, the peacekeeping force still have a modicum of gravitas in their line of duty while presenting much lesser probability of damage to the structural integrity.

Keep in mind, though, that there is a possibility of other nation declaring war on us and it would be very foolish to not respond in kind when needed. A certain level of defense would be needed if we are not equipped with projectile weaponry at such time.

In conclusion, I think that the use of firearms should be prohibited beyond the emergence of war but the training for using firearms should still be properly introduced to the peacekeeping force.

Ignoring the troll who is chilling on the site posting about how this will never work, etc....

It looks like the general consensus makes, well sense. Actual projectile weapons of destructive force SHOULD be for emergencies only. A proper system for this would be two or three random people are given a code and all three must unlock the storage facility (Which SHOULD be in a remote area with an option for jettison in case of faults or technological failures) before issuing. At that stage, the fingerprint idea would be an alright preventative measure. There would need to be a much more secure method in case someone wants to actually cause harm.

As for arming the peace keeping force: Airsoft Guns for example are extremely effective and safe for within a space station, tasers, pepper gas, batons, etc would be fine. Beyond that though, something else that needs to be taken into extreme consideration is the method of and the choosing of the peace keeping force. We cannot allow something like Ferguson, MI to occur, or any of the other articles you see across the United States. 

As new member of Asgardia Nation i want to say my personal opinion: the guns for me are form of fear and  we need use weapons only for emergency situation.