Michael

I sympathise with your annoyance!

FYI I spend a lot of my time in New Zealand where apart from in the army and Police, it is very difficult to own a pistol (requires formal approval of the Police, can only be used in an approved pistol club, may not be worn or carried except in an approved secure carrybag) and rifles need to be licensed to a named individual who again needs a Police assessment as being of good character. Automatic weapons are not permitted at all.

We do quite a lot of hunting in New Zealand and there are good reasons why farmers and people in the country need 303 rifles and the like. But there is no real need for a postol or automatic weapon.

Recently we have become somewhat concerned at the proliferation of semi-automatic and now automatic weapons in urban areas. All politics aside, there is only one real purpose for such a device in town and it isn't for hunting game.

We are also concerned that criminals who want weapons simply flout the law. So we have a large responsible firearm-owning community that behaves responsibly, and a criminal underbelly that gets uzis and the like.

Periodically and usually after a high-profile firearm murder we get bleeding-hearters proposing stricter firearm laws. Since criminals are breaking the existing laws anyway, many of us think that stricter laws will just inconvenience the large majority who behave responsibly whether there are laws or not.

For myself, I do not have a firearm in the house but I do have a large cattle-prod. It is about 2.5 feet long, mostly battery, and it can deliver a jolt to a cow that gives it a real hurry-along. Applied to a man, it inflicts an incredibly severe fright, disorientation, almost always a collapse to the floor, often loss of control of sphincters, and generally distracts a thug from doing mischief to my family or children. In case it doesn't work first time, mine has enough charge for a second immediate application to be sure the fellow sits down for a chat.

The best thing is that all you have to do is offer the stick to your assailant; they will instinctively reach out to confiscate it... zap.

I suppose our society is different from yours. I doubt we are less violent, actually NZ'ers as a whole are fairly physical people, but we have a culture of non-proliferation of firearms and it is a rare city-dweller that owns a firearm or keeps one under the bed. Actually you are not allowed to keep a loaded firearm under the bed.

Having said that, society is changing and if gangs roamed the streets with weapons, most people like me would purchase a shotgun or two for my home and a nice new semi for myself, and join a gun club.

Bleeding-hearters take note. It is the proliferation and use of firearms that makes the difference, not necessarily the laws. And responsible people will take steps to defend themselves regardless if the law is an ass.

Regards

JR