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OK, as spelled out in the thread about Australia being further down the road, New Zealand has more restrictive gun laws than the US. Here nobody carries guns concealed or not ..... not even our cops!!! IIRC New Zealand and the UK are the only police forces who do not carry firearms on their person. Some of our cops carry them in trunk of some patrol cars.
Gun ownership is a privilege in this country, not a right, and as such responsible gun owners must do a few things to maintain the privilege of owning firearms. We have to store them securely, we have to handle them safely, we may not under any circumstances use them for self defense. Failure to do these things risks imprisonment and large fines and waiving the privilege of owning or operating guns in the future ..... in theory. I'll illustrate reality with a real life story.
My wife and I popped around to a friend's place ... I was helping the friend work on his car. My wife and friends wife went out to get food and on the way stopped in to our place to pick up our two border collie dogs with the intention of taking them back to our friends place while we were there.
When the 2 ladies arrived in the driveway an obviously agitated woman was standing at our front fence. My wife got out of the car and approached the woman asking her what was wrong. When my wife was about 10 yards away she realised that the "stick" the woman was holding was actually a rifle. The woman was yelling about barking dogs .... dogs barking all day, all night and that she'd had enough and was going to shoot the f***ing things. My wife, cool as a cucumber, realised the seriousness of the situation but tried to calm her down and to explain rationally about her problem. My wife tried to reason with her and tell her that she couldn't just go around shooting dogs on other people's property and was she sure it was these dogs that were the problem, had she tried to solve the problem any other way, etc. The woman continued to rant, brandished the rifle, threatened to shoot the dogs and threatened to shoot my wife. The disturbed woman made a few more threats, waved the rifle a bit more and walked off across the road and down a driveway.
My wife immediately went inside and somewhat unsure as to what she should do phoned me and asked me if I thought she should call the cops. Of course I was shocked, and my reply contained a few words, but leaving out the unsavoury ones amounted to "yes".
An armed police response (including helicopter) followed. 4 or 5 armed units arrived, identified their target, gathered information from the neighbours, secured a perimeter, closed in and got the woman and her partner to surrender peacefully. No shots fired. Hours of interviews and paperwork later we were left by the cops with the assurance that we were perfectly safe, they had confiscated all firearms on the property (that they could find) and she wouldn't be making bail till the next day at the earliest.
My wife and I were more than a little shaken and somewhat apprehensive about possible retaliation by this lunatic woman. The armed response took approximately 75 minutes from the 111 call (its not 911 in this country) to the surrender. There were no officers on site untill approximately 25 minutes after the call apart from the helicopter which arrived about 10 minutes after the call.
Turns out the woman and her partner were having a hard time in their relationship, she'd been drinking, she'd decided to take out her frustrations on something and decided our dogs barked enough to be a nuisance (though all our other neighbours never hear our dogs bark much at all). She had grabbed an air rifle (thankfully) and decided to threaten the dogs .... she had been at the fence for 10 minutes before my wife had turned up.
We were told that she was in serious trouble and that she was certainly facing prison time, hefty fines, all manner of strife. The sgt on the scene told me personally that he considered it an extremely serious situation, mitigated only by the fact that it was an air rifle and that she had not actually pointed the rifle at my wife, although she had threatened to shoot her. He assured me that they were seriously not amused about the alcohol and firearm mix, the threats of violence and the irrational and unwarranted behaviour by the perp. I was warned by the cops not to even consider preparing any of my firearms for home or personal defense and that should any problems arise we should leave it all up to them or face charges ourselves.
In the weeks after the incident, my wife made a few follow up calls to the local cops and our neighbours. It turns out the loopey lady with the gun had no record or convictions and showed real remorse so they have put her on a "diversion programme". This means she escapes any threat of prison time, but she does have to do 120 hours of community service, write a letter of apology and pay a fine of up to $5000. As the lady is unable to work and on a sickness benefit I will be paying her fine as a taxpayer. We don't get to see any of that fine money at all ... presumably it gets wasted in the court system somewhere. I also get to pay for her community service because somebody (public servant) has to adminster the system and supervise her while she carries out her sentence. We haven't seen any evidence of a letter of apology to date.
We are left with a serious feeling of uneasiness .... this woman has been evicted because of her wee episode, she is having to do community service because of it, she knows where we live and that our dogs are always locked up in a run when we're not home. No doubt she is seriously unhappy about the people who called the cops on her. I no longer feel secure in my home, but I'm not allowed to comfort myself with a loaded shotgun by my bed, nor am I allowed to point it at anyone even if they break into my home and threaten me or mine. I have to rely on the 25 minute response time of our police force to defend my wife and I and our dogs and property. I have to play by the rules or lose my toys, but others break the rules and get a slap on the wrist.
Something just ain't right!!
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Gun ownership is a privilege in this country, not a right, and as such responsible gun owners must do a few things to maintain the privilege of owning firearms. We have to store them securely, we have to handle them safely, we may not under any circumstances use them for self defense. Failure to do these things risks imprisonment and large fines and waiving the privilege of owning or operating guns in the future ..... in theory. I'll illustrate reality with a real life story.
My wife and I popped around to a friend's place ... I was helping the friend work on his car. My wife and friends wife went out to get food and on the way stopped in to our place to pick up our two border collie dogs with the intention of taking them back to our friends place while we were there.
When the 2 ladies arrived in the driveway an obviously agitated woman was standing at our front fence. My wife got out of the car and approached the woman asking her what was wrong. When my wife was about 10 yards away she realised that the "stick" the woman was holding was actually a rifle. The woman was yelling about barking dogs .... dogs barking all day, all night and that she'd had enough and was going to shoot the f***ing things. My wife, cool as a cucumber, realised the seriousness of the situation but tried to calm her down and to explain rationally about her problem. My wife tried to reason with her and tell her that she couldn't just go around shooting dogs on other people's property and was she sure it was these dogs that were the problem, had she tried to solve the problem any other way, etc. The woman continued to rant, brandished the rifle, threatened to shoot the dogs and threatened to shoot my wife. The disturbed woman made a few more threats, waved the rifle a bit more and walked off across the road and down a driveway.
My wife immediately went inside and somewhat unsure as to what she should do phoned me and asked me if I thought she should call the cops. Of course I was shocked, and my reply contained a few words, but leaving out the unsavoury ones amounted to "yes".
An armed police response (including helicopter) followed. 4 or 5 armed units arrived, identified their target, gathered information from the neighbours, secured a perimeter, closed in and got the woman and her partner to surrender peacefully. No shots fired. Hours of interviews and paperwork later we were left by the cops with the assurance that we were perfectly safe, they had confiscated all firearms on the property (that they could find) and she wouldn't be making bail till the next day at the earliest.
My wife and I were more than a little shaken and somewhat apprehensive about possible retaliation by this lunatic woman. The armed response took approximately 75 minutes from the 111 call (its not 911 in this country) to the surrender. There were no officers on site untill approximately 25 minutes after the call apart from the helicopter which arrived about 10 minutes after the call.
Turns out the woman and her partner were having a hard time in their relationship, she'd been drinking, she'd decided to take out her frustrations on something and decided our dogs barked enough to be a nuisance (though all our other neighbours never hear our dogs bark much at all). She had grabbed an air rifle (thankfully) and decided to threaten the dogs .... she had been at the fence for 10 minutes before my wife had turned up.
We were told that she was in serious trouble and that she was certainly facing prison time, hefty fines, all manner of strife. The sgt on the scene told me personally that he considered it an extremely serious situation, mitigated only by the fact that it was an air rifle and that she had not actually pointed the rifle at my wife, although she had threatened to shoot her. He assured me that they were seriously not amused about the alcohol and firearm mix, the threats of violence and the irrational and unwarranted behaviour by the perp. I was warned by the cops not to even consider preparing any of my firearms for home or personal defense and that should any problems arise we should leave it all up to them or face charges ourselves.
In the weeks after the incident, my wife made a few follow up calls to the local cops and our neighbours. It turns out the loopey lady with the gun had no record or convictions and showed real remorse so they have put her on a "diversion programme". This means she escapes any threat of prison time, but she does have to do 120 hours of community service, write a letter of apology and pay a fine of up to $5000. As the lady is unable to work and on a sickness benefit I will be paying her fine as a taxpayer. We don't get to see any of that fine money at all ... presumably it gets wasted in the court system somewhere. I also get to pay for her community service because somebody (public servant) has to adminster the system and supervise her while she carries out her sentence. We haven't seen any evidence of a letter of apology to date.
We are left with a serious feeling of uneasiness .... this woman has been evicted because of her wee episode, she is having to do community service because of it, she knows where we live and that our dogs are always locked up in a run when we're not home. No doubt she is seriously unhappy about the people who called the cops on her. I no longer feel secure in my home, but I'm not allowed to comfort myself with a loaded shotgun by my bed, nor am I allowed to point it at anyone even if they break into my home and threaten me or mine. I have to rely on the 25 minute response time of our police force to defend my wife and I and our dogs and property. I have to play by the rules or lose my toys, but others break the rules and get a slap on the wrist.
Something just ain't right!!
Spinner
:banghead: 
