Collins: Change to police guns policy by Xmas

14 Oct 2010 08:31a.m.

John wrote:

Arming the police is an easy way of ignoring the fundamental failures of society. Guns are an ex post response to crime. What is actually needed is more effort in preventing crime through detective work and policing strategy rather than focusing on responding to it. Nor does arming the police offer a solution to fundamental socio-political issues which contribute to crime. Routinely arming the police is an uneven response to gun crime, as it will affect some sections of the community more than others. For example, as certain ethnic groups are often associated with particular types of criminality, police use of firearms will damage police credibility within communities which feel that they are the subject of too much police suspicion. Even if the police believe they are carrying weapons in self-defence, others will view it as an aggressive act.

05 Aug 2010 11:28p.m.

urban druid wrote:

The problem is not one of a lack of legislation, it is at issue that the laws we currently seek to "enforce" don't appear to be working in the good spirit they were intended.
A certain practicality is missing. That practicality is: a widely-popular public support of the "law", which will ensure that the public co-operate with the law enforcement and offenders are minimal because of the widely shared view, values, basic morals...
Such a consensus does not exist for the use and commerce in drugs and there is sufficient demand for drug products to make large accumulations of "risky to defend" portable wealth.
Enter guns - not perhaps so much in defence of threat from local police, but perhaps more a response to defending product and cash from any others who would take it from you.
A firearm puts a protective circle, and barrier around the possessor. Police will become less approachable and less welcoming of approach...
Let's face it, we are a small satalite state of the U.S.A. We can look to their country and learn from their mistakes, and look to some of the remedies places like California have begun to investigate with the introduction of legal supply of medical cannabis products.
War on drugs is a damaging policy that has turned suburban neighbourhoods into war zones.

20 Jul 2010 08:25a.m.

Alex wrote:

Steff, I think you'll find a lot of criminals are acquiring their guns illegally. There are thousands of illegal firearms circulating in NZ and a black market in place for their trade. Why would any of them bother to go through the proper channels?