During this week this bastard shot dead two women and badly injured a man.
Apparently he was a disgruntled property renter who was being moved on and took umbrage.
He was also a previous violent offender, a depressive and an illegal firearms owner.
The two women - property managers, and a tradesman were legally going about their business and were shot because of it.
A couple of years ago I applied for a job with a property management company in the Whangarei area. I didn't get the job much to the Old Girl's relief as she asked me if I really wanted to deal with people in remote areas who weren't paying their rent and who might turn violent. She was prescient in this.
In addition to the awful tragedy of this event there is going to be a lot of fallout relating to it:
- Why did this joker have firearms (and possibly hand grenades)?
- Why wasn't he licensed?
- What did the NZ Police know about this?
- What did the NZ Police do about it?
- What is wrong with the gun laws in this country?
- How the hell can someone buy guns on line without proper vetting?
- Why didn't the neighbours report earlier strange behaviour?
- Why didn't friends and family step up earlier and do something?
The last two questions are difficult. How many of us step up in these situations? Often no action is taken because no-one really expects the worst.
The other questions though need to be asked and proper answers demanded.
The firearms regulations changed in the 1980s. Before the change individual firearms had to be registered and the NZ Police were charged with keeping an up-to-date register of every gun in the country and that could be traced back to an individual. In the 1980s a lot of changes happened in this country - financial, social, economic and political that led to a deregulated economy following on from a tightly controlled economy. There were some good outcomes but just as many bad outcomes. Firearm regulation is among the bad outcomes. Deregulation and freeing up of import controls by abolishing the import licensing system suddenly brought previously unattainable goods to the general public - cars, electronics, electrical goods etc. Suddenly the wealth of the country made from primary produce exports was being dissipated by purchases of all sort of imported shit. Now some of this 'imported shit' was good and needed but a hell of a lot of it was pure waste. Discount stores opened up like The Warehouse and Briscoes-like chain stores pedalling all sorts of cheaply made and very short consumer-life products from televisions to gumboots.
Caught up in this was firearms.
The new regulations gave away the requirement for every firearm to be licensed and brought in an individual persons license requirement. This meant that as an individual you could get a firearms license but could then go on and accumulate as many guns as you wanted.
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| Gee, aren't I clever |
A 'perfect storm' as a result.
I didn't get one of these personal licenses or upgrade my trusty old Parker Hale .303 to a Kalashnikov. I sold my gun in 1981 (to a licensed sports store). Yes I did shoot Bambi's mum some years earlier and am forever sorry for having done so.
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| "You bastard!" |
Today we are experiencing the very negative fall-out from these changes:
- The requirement for individual firearms to be licensed being abolished means that The Police and the Government have no idea of how many guns are in circulation or who owns them.
- The growth of firearm retailers has brought in many more firearms and, with deregulation as to type, has brought in many automatic-type firearms that are basically military in design and intended usage and not for 'legitimate hunting'
- The growth of on-line trading is making it much easier for 'unsociable' people to buy and sell goods.
- More firearms in circulation means more firearms are being stolen, sold illegally or traded in a cavalier manner.
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OK. To visit some of the earlier questions.
Why did this joker have firearms (and possibly hand grenades)? and,
Why wasn't he licensed?
Man these are big ones. This may be the catalyst for a major review of current regulations leading to some kind of referendum on gun ownership in this country.
One, if he was unlicensed how did he get firearms?
Two, as he was unlicensed why did people sell him firearms?
OK, that sounds silly but think about it. As a convicted and imprisoned violent criminal (he very seriously injured a police officer with a knife 30 years ago) he couldn't or shouldn't have been able to get a firearms license. But this didn't sop him getting firearms. The system isn't working. Q.E.D.
What did the NZ Police know about this?
We've been told via the media that The Police had him down 'as a known person' whatever that means.
But, more importantly today we learnt that last month the Police visited this joker because of some illegal structure on the property he was renting. The police person(s) who visited and spoke with him decided that the illegal structure was more of a property management problem rather than a police enforcement issue. OK, I'm cool with that - if the illegal structure was a deck or a hen house but the Police were told that the structure was some sort of shooting target. WTF! Did Officer Plod think to ask to see the joker's firearms license? If so and it wasn't forthcoming did said officer ask what guns this c**t had? What the hell is going on here?
What did the NZ Police do about it?
See above. apparently nothing but hey, I'm just getting my news from legitimate news sources.
What is wrong with the gun laws in this country?
They are loose and belong in another generation (or two).
After WW2 when soldiers came back to re-establish themselves in the community and with government assistance to establish farming throughout New Zealand to capitalise on a newly created export market for meat and dairy produce there were two reasons why the 'average rural' household had a firearm: One was for controlling vermin - .22 for rabbits and .303 for deer, pigs and goats that were an environmental problem; and two for food. We didn't have intensive meat production that was sold through supermarkets the way we have today and many people supplemented weekly protein consumption with the wild rabbit, deer, goat or pig that most rural and many city people had access to.
In 2017 we don't need to supplement our protein (or at least our meat) consumption with wild shooting. To their shame supermarkets are forever having discounts and specials on meat. I cringe when I see 'bargains' on meat wondering why we kill so many animals and then have to special off the carcasses because too much has been killed.
Basically we do not have to have New Zealanders going about the hills, forests and mountains massacring wildlife. It isn't essential for food so it can only be for 'sport'.
Because of this I wonder why then that New Zealanders need to have guns. If we don't need to shoot for food to survive what are we going to do with these guns?
How the hell can someone buy guns on line without proper vetting?
This bewilders me. This joker, without a legal firearms license has been able to buy guns and other armaments. How? Should I be worried? Yes I bloody well should. This c**t was living only a couple of kilometres from me so I feel that I have a personal interest in this. Who sold him the guns and ammunition? I hope that this can be tracked down and the providers be charged with manslaughter.
Now you or bleeding-heart liberals might wonder why I don't have any sympathy for this joker, the c**t as I call him. I accept that he has had psychological problems, may or may not have been on medication etc but, he stabbed a policeman and nearly ended his life along with his career and bought firearms with the intent to use them against people. Sure he might have had some black depression moments but he bought guns and ammo, practised shooting them and then proceeded to use them against three people, two of whom are now dead. He himself is now dead. Boo-hoo. Why didn't he just shoot himself in the head before he shot the other people?
We all know or have known people who have had problems but we have to say that individual responsibility is paramount and we must be responsible for our actions.
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Going forward.
We do have a vermin problem in this country that endangers natural habitat and wildlife. We do have agencies that deal with this however and we don't necessarily need the Barry Crump types going about shooting them all up. And if we do need the Barry Crump types then they can be licensed or employed by the government agencies. We don't need weekend cowboys going out blasting everything they see. These 'weekend cowboy' gun owners have guns, multiple guns that they keep at home (hopefully in authorised gun lockers) but that are at risk from home invasion, burglary or the owner going off his rocker.
If said cowboys have a primal urge to shoot something up (a target or an animal) they should belong to a government controlled gun club. Said gun club can hold the firearms for them in a safe lock-up and hire them out as required for set and limited mounts of time. Ideally the gun ownership, warehousing and control should be with the Police.
We are a small country and the total quantum of guns is manageable in terms of the cost of a gun amnesty (like Australia enacted some years ago).
If we don't get rid of the guns now and bring in common-sense firearm legislation then we will be in for a hiding later on.
What do you think?
2 comments:
Agreed.
I agree that noone needs guns. There are safer ways of dealing with all problems. Home invasion? You're getting into some serious shit if you've got a gun - firstly you'd have to go and get it and load it. Already loaded? There's a problem. Just one little thing, The Curmudgeon, the noun we generally use in this country is 'licence'. Remember, you started it.
Apart from that, a very well written post.
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