Pure madness.................again

[Chris Allman]

I have to wonder why people find it necessary to own Military style weapons with such killing potential. It can only be to boost their pitiful egos and make them look and feel macho. Little boys with their dangerous toys. Personal freedom to own such weapons of mass destruction is to my mind a totally unnecessary freedom which can achieve nothing but situations like the present one. There will always be animosity between and towards different religions, creeds and nationalities, these weapons just make things a lot worse with a lot of unnecessary deaths of innocent people. Unless their use is for military means then I do not see any good reason for anybody outside the military to possess such weapons. I also think branding a country a ' Nanny State ' for wanting to take these weapons out of idiot hands, reprehensible.

[Ken Norton]

Probably the same reason why people have to go and kill wild animals for pleasure Chris, e.g. giraffes, elk and zebra. I always say "They aint wired correctly" got a blue one where a red should be! Pure madness, just sayin'

[j.sabourn]

Remember the good old bad old days, when you never even saw a British bobby armed ? Maybe. Historians can place the time and reason why it all changed. ? JWS..

[j hardy]

so I am reprehensible am I? thank you for that, I shall treasure your opinion. can anyone tell me why my word for a follower of a certain religion is ******? I find this to be censorship of the worst kind. as for people wishing to own certain types of firearms, surely that is their prerogative, you don't like them, don't buy one, simple as that. the question should be how did he get a new Zealand licence? the answer is that the checks and balances that should have been done, were not done,and the blame lies squarely at the feet of the nz authorites. we are constantly told not to blame members of the religion of peace for the actions of a few, but 250,000 gun owners are being denigrated, vilified and discriminated against for the action of one man. hypocritical in my view

[Chris Allman]

I am grateful for your thanks and reiterate that there is no argument whatsoever that can condone a private civilian individual owning a military type gun capable of mass slaughter, other than an egotistic one. Prerogative has nothing to do with it. I am so sorry, NOT, that 250,000 people feel slighted and upset because the new laws stopped them owning a weapon capable of the mass killing of innocent men, women and children no matter what color, creed or religion. Denigrated, vilified and discriminated against, I don't think so, common sense laws have been enacted to stop the possession of these weapons falling into the wrong hands, the hands of mentally deranged people who kill on a whim or alleged political ideals or just because they want to. Using your argument, then it would be OK for people to own nuclear bombs too, as surely that is their prerogative too. I applaud the New Zealand Governments' actions and hope that it will be repeated in as many civilised countries as possible, although I won't hold my breath over America whose history of murder and assassination by guns is outrageous.

[Des Taff Jenkins]

I went back to live in NZ in 2000 for five years, I suppose I could have got a gun license without too much trouble, why not; I had no criminal record, and so it was with the simpleton who went on a rampage in Christchurch, and lets face it he is a simpleton who probably played too many of those video games. the law is an ass until caught out then they gear up to late. I can see why NZ farmers would want a rifle to keep down vermin, but an automatic is overkill, there would be nothing left of a bunny to eat , or the fox to stuff. His reason for what he did is probably as stupid as the bloke in Europe who set fire to a bus as a reprisal for all the people who had drowned in the Mediterranean; as if the people on the bus where to blame.
Des

[j.sabourn]

#36...JH I have got that used to the curtailing of certain rules that I just put in the asterisks myself to save on the memory banks of the machine itself. Your points have been brought up before , but who said we live in a democratic world.? It is only a name. Used Whenever it is convenient usually by minority groups. Cheers JS
Des as to the past atrocity’s against civilians mainly in Europe and according to certain media articles at the time about similar faithed people showing no signs of regret, most of a sane mind at the time wondered when the vigilante mentality would take a step into the breach , and as usual those who have some sort of revenge in mind have stepped in true to form. It only stands to get larger the more visibility it attains via the media, and which some of their purely personal remarks printed for all to see and dwell on. It has really exceeded the point of platitudes and saying sorry. Anyone who can talk can say anything they like be it with tongue in cheek or not. Action will always speak louder than words. The past week we have seen action of the worse form , what is needed is positive action with positive penalty’s for those not obeying the law, not milk sop ideas like writing out a hundred lines I have been a bad boy. I would suggest bringing back the rope but I suppose there are few today who could do a running bowline, so maybe the guillotine, after all nobody wants to lose their head. Cheers JS

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi John.
As you say words are cheap from the political classes whether it is over guns or their promises et al ,and before today is out here in NSW we will see if they are still so. We have an election where we can get rid of a govt that has abused the privilege; there has been any amount of gnashing of teeth over privatization, now comes the crunch, as most of the money has been spent in Sydney with the country people hidden from view, to the extent that the river systems have gone down the gurgler and our roads are something only the first settlers put up with. But wait! outside it is raining money.
Cheers Des

[j hardy]

as you say des, the outcome of todays election will be interesting, pundits are still spruiking "two party preferred" as an outsider, I predict a hung parliament (personally I think most of them should be hung) they all say they will do no deals with this that and the other group, but when it comes to keeping their snouts in the trough, they will deal with the devil himself. the quality of most of our politicians over the last 20-30 years has been abysmal.

[j.sabourn]

Every time I switch on the telly, I. See Clive Palmer. The amount of money that party is putting into advertising is phenonomel He is beginning to look more feasible all the time, say something long and hard enough and everyone becomes brain dead. He Stands as good a chance as any which a few years ago would have been unthinkable. However my cross may be going there in the hope he may have a conscience. Cheers. JS.