Should Kiwi cops be carrying guns all the time?
Of course they should.
In my opinion it's as simple as that. And let me say that I have thought this for a while and it is not a knee jerk reaction to what has happened in Napier last week.
You only have to look at the state of New Zealand society to see that without the ability to at least protect themselves more and more Kiwi police officers are going to end up being killed or wounded on the job.
You're kidding yourself if you think giving the police guns will only lead to more criminals carrying weapons.
Most of them are now.
That's reality, pure and simple.
Maybe giving the police guns will actually help steer the thugs away from confrontation.
I doubt it.
There's a level of society here in New Zealand who don't care what they do, they have no respect for other people and certainly not for other people's property.
And they have absolutely no respect for the police.
So if we want the police to uphold the laws that are designed to keep us safe in our homes and on the streets then let's level the playing field.
And lets be honest, when confronted with a criminal carrying a gun what real use is a taser going to be?
Give the police guns but for goodness sake make sure they're trained properly.
Spend the money on training.
Make sure they know how to shoot a gun properly so we don't have innocent people dying on the streets.
What do you think? Do you think I'm going overboard?
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Comments
Agree in principal but more needs to be done in other areas too. None of the recommendations regarding the holding of firearms in 2002 have been enacted. There can be no use (apart from target shooting) for holding a handgun, ban them. If a club member then the gun stays at the club or if removed for cleaning/servicing, disabled. Make the import of gun parts and replicas illegal. Every firearm should be registered, at present no-one knows where guns are or who has what. Crazy!
May 12 04:02 pmOf course they should carry guns! It seems ridiculous that police are expected to enter any type of agressive or criminal situation without being armed. They are of course dealing with many types of people who choose not to follow the law therefore the behaviours can be unpredicatble. All drug raids and enquiries should be approached well prepared for trouble.
May 12 04:06 pmAs a long serving frontline copper, I am NOT IN FAVOUR of being routinely armed. Having deployed with firearms to incidents over the years, I note in myself and in my collegues a change in how we interact with the public whilst armed. We become more "stand-offish" because of the fear that some offenders will attempt to take the weapon off us. We know from the US that many cops are killed with their own weapons. At least you can out run a baton or pepper spray but you can't out run
May 12 04:35 pma bullet! Believe it or not, most criminals will not use a firearm against police - there is an "unspoken" gentleman's agreement. Most, if not all shootings of police have been at the hands of loners with mental health issues.
May 12 04:42 pmGoing back to the Napier saga - where we know the place we are going to raid is risky, we will always go armed. Clearly in this case, local officers had NO idea that they were walking into a nut-job's home. If they did, it would have been a full AOS operation - not 3 unarmed coppers!
May 12 04:46 pm