Gun Control; Is it effective?

Kia Ora,

In yesterday's 'Press' there was an editorial on gun control & the shooting in the US in particular of the Congresswoman.

To me it showed the writer of the editorial had no idea what they are talking about. There was comment about how strange it is that in the US having access to firearms made them feel safer. Well actually when I visited the US I felt safer than I do in Christchurch, yet our police are unarmed as are our security & to gain a firearm legally you have to jump through hoops.

This 'unarmed' state of the New Zealand police & securtiy in particular I know put many Americans off coming here as they viewed that it would be too dangerous a country. I know because they told me so when I visited there a few years ago.

As I have said often I find Christchurch in particular more dangerous than when I worked security in Iraq because as my South African dentist(from Jo'burg) said there is no reason for the crime or violence & it is so random. Also the fact I no longer have a weapon just makes you feel unsafe. You get a lot less arguments when you are armed & a lot less people wanting to take you on.

But is gun control effective?

Well really no! The only people it penalizes are those who stick by the rules. Most firearms used here in New Zealand are illegal or stolen.

As the reporter from the Sunday-Star Times showed in his undercover piece sometime back. It is real easy to buy illegal firearms in New Zealand & the firearms safety of many of those selling is appalling.
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The editorial then goes on to say that it is due to the toxic political environment in the US & we do not have an unhealthy gun culture.

I think this shows their lack of understanding on what is going on in the world. The Congresswoman is not the first political person killed or attempted to be killed of late & most of it is to do with the financial crisis as people come under extreme stress. At least one person killed has directly been atributed to the austerity measures they agreed to carryout.

This sort of incident will only increase as the worlds situation worsens. As was pointed out in the previous post it is the climate now where extrmists end up with political power & this is how the likes of the Nazi party got to power in Germany. We haven't seen an equivalent of the 'night of the long knives' yet.
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As to a gun culture. New Zealand has a pretty significant gun culture & I grew up seeing firearms a lot. The major difference is population. New Zealand has only just reached 4 million people. The US is about 260 million therefore you are going to have a lot more incidents. Per Capita though I would be very careful saying we don't have a gun culture the same as the US & amount of incidents. On the surface we don't seem to be as carefree with firearms, but again as that reporter exposed it is pretty dodgy. In fact during security tasks you often hear firearms been discharged but what do you do when you have no details to pass to the police? Everyone else just convinces themselves its fireworks.

We have had enough mass murders(Aramoana, Stanley Graham, Bain faimly, to name a few) or potential mass murders(Napier springs to mind).

People in New Zealand also seem to stick to the myth that the NZ Police have always been an unarmed force, only resorting to firearms when the requirement arose.

As the NZ Police yes that is true, but before that they were known as the Armed Constabulary. That change took place in the early 1900's so it has been a while, but there is still a history of been armed.

The NZ Security Industry does even better as it was armed until 1974 in a low key manner for certain tasks. It is even more important now that it should be armed again when you look at it from a risk assessment & health & safety point of view.
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But the gun is not the issue. It is just the weapon of choice of that person.

In the last two months high profile attacks on police here in NZ have involved knives or machete's. In South Auckland you would say the weapon of choice has always been a machete.

Then you have the likes of Timothy McVeigh who used what is commonly refered to as ampho to destroy a building. The biggest terrorist attack on US soil prior to 9/11(Pearl Harbour was an act of war even if the Japanese got their timings wrong about when to deliver the message)pissed off with politicians. In fact 9/11 should tell people that an attack by an upset armed individual, though tragic, is only small beer to what could be carried out.

Fact is to stop terrorist attacks people need to be armed. You can't, as seems to be the woollyheaded thinking at times here in New Zealand, say "Stop! Excuse me sir are you a suicide bomber?"
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I would call Gun Control the Claytons(a non alcoholic drink you used to get here in NZ whose advert went "the drink you are having when you are not having a drink" It was awful & consensus was only way to drink it was with Whiskey)solution. The solution you have when you really don't have a solution.

Gun Control does not work as there seems to be an increasing amount of firearms out there found on drug raids, used in armed robberies & in gang confrontations. It just happens to be weapon of choice for some.

Firearms education is what is really needed. As was pointed out so often when in the army "Its not the weapon that kills, but the nut behind it!"

http://www.foxhoundsecurity.co.nz