Letters: New Zealand has no cause to allow semi-automatic weapons

Two-year-old Kalani Sargent lays flowers outside the Tauranga Mosque. Photo / Andrew Warner.

New Zealand has no cause to allow semi-automatic weapons in the country as they were invented to kill more people more quickly.

As a retired army officer I saw devastating results in my time in Vietnam when such a weapon was in the hands of someone who suddenly lost it.

Some years ago I was roundly criticised by the gun lobby for publicly calling for all guns to be removed from being held in private residences and being secured in central armouries administered by the police.

This did not stop use as they could be drawn out and used for duck/rabbit shooting purposes at any time and then returned to a secure armoury. This meant at any one time there was a record as to who was in the community with a weapon.

The gun lobby was opposed to such a move, but as it seems ridiculous that a license allows ownership of many weapons how is it possible to know how many firearms are in New Zealand.

It does seem very easy to obtain a licence too. That needs further investigation. (Abridged)

John Dyer
Omokoroa

Shaken out of complacency

The tragedy which unfolded in Christchurch on Friday shocked us all out of our complacency in these small isolated islands in the South Pacific but should come as no surprise.

It is one more expression of a spread of a self-centred ideology that is voiced by such as Donald Trump, in his campaign against the liberal thinking of previous administrations.

It is the motivation of Boris Johnson in his attempt by Brexit to destroy the long-cherished ideal of a United Europe.

We can see it in the move by Vladimir Putin to revive the Russian Empire and the murder of a critic of the oppressive regime in Saudi Arabia.

Going back in time, we read of the crucifixion orchestrated by the High Priests of Israel of a man who dared to preach a liberal theology to challenge their self-centred little world.

Robert Shaw
Tauranga

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