How dangerous are airguns? Police say they can easily kill people at short range, and they are worried at how easily they can be bought - owners do not even need a firearms licence.
The police are not saying what sort of airgun the shot Whangarei woman was armed with, but airguns now range from the benign BB gun to gas-compressed ones with the power to kill.
And it was a single shot from an airgun that killed police officer Don Wilkinson six weeks ago as he fled from a suspected 'P' house.
"These days, they're so realistic that when police lay a real Glock on the table beside an airgun replica of a Glock, even their own officers cannot tell the difference," says gun control advocate Philip Alpers.
This is why New Zealand Police Association president Greg O'Connor says airguns pose can pose a serious threat.
"We've seen with the death of Sergeant Don Wilkinson just how dangerous air rifles can be," he says. "They have to be treated as any firearm until you know otherwise."
Police are lobbying for airguns and replicas to be classified as firearms, and Mr Alpers wants politicians to bite the bullet and make them a licensed weapon.
"They haven't come up to speed with the rest of the world," he says. "Australia, Britain, Canada and it's perhaps time New Zealand realised they're lagging behind with these gun laws."
"Nobody should ever point a firearm at anyone," says Mr O'Connor, "especially at police officers because no one knows whether it's loaded, no one knows whether it's real."
Real or not, using an airgun for the wrong reasons can have lethal consequences.
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