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© Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.New Zealand gunman dies after shooting spree
WELLINGTON, New Zealand©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
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Den Den
There goes the "safest country in the world" award.
neverknow2
It's happened before. This is not the first time. It still is a hell of a lot safer than any other country. Especially the US. Not everyone in NZ walks around with their machine guns talking about how free they while their soldiers are invading Middle Eastern, Asian and African countries.
Beelzebub
I think the proper term for incidents like this is cop-assissted suicide.
FryingMonkey
Glad to hear that after 100 shots fired only two were slightly injured. How did he still have guns after "involved in several previous gunshot incidents "? Also neverknow2, really? couldn't resist an opportunity to try and smear the States? Sad...
smithinjapan
The only way this has any relevance to any gun control debate is that the man should not have been allowed to have the weapons he did, since the man had been involved in several incidents before. Beyond that, it was just a tired, depressed man who wished to take it out on others. This isn't a regularly occurrence in NZ, and no one was killed. Does that make it okay? Not at all, and clearly they've got to recheck who is permitted to carry guns, but this is not an A is safer than B country-related issue.
kwatt
It is just lucky this time that no one was shot because he was crippled. If he was not, at least couple of people might have been shot to death as usual. I think strict gun control is very necessary.
smithinjapan
kwatt: "It is just lucky this time that no one was shot because he was crippled."
I agree it's lucky people weren't killed, but I doubt it's so much an issue of his being crippled. Had he gone into a more populated area he could still have killed a number of people, instead of just randomly firing at houses and what not. Perhaps he didn't really want anyone to die, it was just, as was said above by Beelzebub, 'suicide by cop'.
flammenwerfer
NZ firearms licenses are issued for 10 years - this system started in 1992/3 - and was implemented alphabetically - so Sime being a gun owner and gun club member would have got his about 1994-ish so his renewal would have been 2004 - so 5 years ago, when he was probably not so depressed and probably quite a decent bloke. As being permitted to "carry guns" - only cops are permitted to carry guns on their person and not as standard (and the only people to have pistols at all). Firearms must be stored in your house in locked cabinets with the ammo separate from the weapon - if you go hunting you have to store it out of sight in your vehicle with unloaded - loaded you are screwed if you get caught. Farmers have to be careful that as they often carry a rifle for vermin control in the farm truck and forget when the come into town.
Apart from issuing licenses every year I don't see what can be done other than the family stepping up to the plate, which they failed to do in this case..."had told family earlier Sunday that he had depression" one call the the cops and they could have investigated and if they deemed him to be a hazard they could have confiscated his weapons.
Den Den
fryingmonkey...why do you thing the US is being smeared? Only 33,000 gun-related murders a year???
SuperLib
There aren't 33,000 gun related murders in the US every year. (I'm with ya Den Den...let's hijack this topic)