Thursday 14 May 2009

The policing of guns

Mike Moreu's cartoon on Tuesday was a bit raw for many, no doubt:

Last century I tried to stop someone from getting a gun licence. I rang the local police station, and they told me they would send someone out to talk to me about it. They asked if I could organise a few other people to talk to them as well, and I agreed. I think I lined up at least four, including people I didn't like very much at the time. The guy they sent out to interview me, and the others, was non-sworn, a retired officer I think. He was nice. And sympathetic. Very good at his job, I thought.

We had some reasonably serious concerns about the past behaviour and mental stability of the person applying for the gun licence. I don't want to go into detail here, and some of it is not my story to share. But given that at the time I was far from being a big fan of the police force it took a lot for me to take the step of trusting them enough to willingly be interviewed by them about the matter.

The gun licence application was approved.

6 comments:

Anna said...

The cartoon is pretty harsh and, I think, absolutely correct.

I had an experience somewhat similar to yours, Julie - the bloke in question had a collection of guns and clear mental health issues, combined with anti-woman views and fantasies about Rambo-style confrontations. In this case, the Police did confiscate his weaponry - but they were not able to compel him to seek mental health treatment or stop doing the other scary, offensive or annoying things he kept doing to other people. I figure that if you're a danger with guns, you're probably still a danger without them. It's one of those situations that's a disaster waiting to happen, just like Napier.

I'm the first the criticise the Police, but I felt they handled the Napier situation well - they didn't give into the temptation to use excessive force, and the guy who led the operation spoke about it in the media in a very dignified way, including acknowledging the loss felt by Molenaar's family. I was so relieved when Len Snee's body was able to be returned to his family - what a terrible tragedy for them.

A Nonny Moose said...

Typical of the New Zealand commentariat. They want the government to create laws/police their people properly, but don't have the time for the namby pamby, "overly PC" part of community groups stepping in.

Julie said...

Deleted some shouty abusive trolling. Yawn.

Julie said...

And deleted a second abusive trolly response to the deletion.

Anonymous said...
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stargazer said...

if that's how you feel, why don't you prove it by staying away from this blog.