When governments don't even trust the police to own guns

It is hard to understand how the government in Australia can object to the police owning semi-automatic guns, but the hysteria seems to know no bounds:

The Police Association also today condemned any attempt by police command to wind back the issue of guns to operational members.

Workplace delegates at a meeting in Melbourne today unanimously endorsed the introduction of semi-automatic weapons and expressed outrage at a proposal to go before Victoria Police's corporate committee tomorrow to remove weapons from some members.