Proper policing of NZ’s gun laws is essential
I REFER to Police Association president Chris Cahill’s call for a New Zealand gun registry (ODT, 15.2.18).
Mr Cahill admits that ‘‘. . . the current system which licences the owner and not the firearm is easy to exploit, poorly policed and poorly monitored’’.
I’m old enough to remember when New Zealand did have a gun registry. Guess what? The registry was eventually dispensed with because it was ‘‘poorly policed and poorly monitored’’ and did not stop crime.
It was replaced, initially, by lifetime licences and then by the 10year licence system we have now.
Canada more recently had a gun registry for all firearms. This was dispensed with in 2012 (apart from restricted firearms), because of huge cost overruns and the fact that it was ineffective in preventing crime.
This country has some of the strongest and most effective firearms laws in the Western world. Mr Cahill’s efforts would be more credible and effective if he devoted his energies into ensuring that his colleagues properly policed and monitored the laws that we do have, rather than advocating for a system which the police have proven in the past unable to manage.
Murray Neilson
Woodside
Pine Hill puzzlement
WHILE we are all appalled at the ridiculously dangerous cycleway situation along the oneway system currently, perhaps we should pause to consider more longstanding stupid cycle signage on the Pine Hill section of State Highway 1.
Last year, a series of six smart signs were installed to pronounce to uphill traffic that the footpath was restricted to pedestrians and ‘‘uphill cyclists only’’. Sadly, there were no companion signs to tell downhill cyclists not to use the footpath.
We therefore have prolific signage that reassures uphill pedestrians that they will be safe from an encounter with a maniacal downhill thrillseeker on two wheels, but there is absolutely no signage at all from the upper points of entry to tell these lovable adrenaline junkies not to use the footpath as a mountainbike track.
Another job halffinished perhaps? As it stands, we are forced to drive past a small but totally illogical waste of public money every single day.
Chris Skellett
Warrington
Out of context?
IN response to Owen Carson’s letter on vaccines (ODT, 15.2.18) — the term ‘‘vaxxer’’ to describe a person who has been vaccinated offends me.
Secondly, I wonder if Mr Carson even read the original article in The
National Academy of Sciences journal? The article titled ‘‘Infectious Virus in Exhaled Breath of Symptomatic Seasonal Influenza Cases from a College Community’’ is 19 pages of scientific data, of which 10 lines relate to less than a quarter of the subjects previously vaccinated.
These 10 lines have been grabbed and taken out of context by the sensationalist, tabloidlike online publication Natural News, which is headed by a conspiracy theorist who calls himself the ‘‘Health Ranger’’ and is far too young to remember the devastation of the polio outbreaks in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s, until the advent of the vaccine which wiped out this crippling illness.
My guess is Mr Carson gained his erroneous information from this.
Sylvia Clarkson
Careys Bay
[Abridged]
Glass half full, please
INSTEAD of ‘‘SadowskiSynott lets windy conditions get to her’’ (ODT, 13.2.18), how about ‘‘Talented young snow boarder in world’s top 20’’. A brilliant achievement especially for one so young. Vern Barrell
Hawea .....................................