National animal identification tags for cattle cross reference every single beast to a registered owner somewhere. Even through a succession of (legitimate) owners, the animal's ownership is identifiable.
We have dog registration, where owners and their canines are matched to each other.
There are many variations on this theme.
However, for a firearms licence — unlike the examples above — there is apparently no provision for indexing, linking, connecting any particular licence holder with any particular weapon.
Most of the people who register their guns, cars, dogs, cattle will be good people with a sense of social responsibility.
The minority who avoid this are the most likely to surface when things go wrong and someone suffers.
Certainly, misused vehicles kill many more people than firearms, but a weapon is designed to kill — that is its purpose.
The regulatory authority needs to know who has got what (even if only the "good guys" do the right thing, the majority of weapons will be accounted for), so they can do something about the illicit firearms and the illegal users.
I repeat, the present system is grossly flawed, and is therefore a waste of authority's time and licencees money.
JOHN THURLOW, Whanganui River
Ground the flyers
Dear Warehouse and Harvey Norman,
For the last few days your flyers (aka junk mail) were blowing all about our suburb because the people did not properly place these items into a letterbox to prevent the wind taking its toll. This is an ongoing problem.
Perhaps you should be responsible for the mess your paper trivia creates.
To those who post it, please make an effort to carry out your task with some diligence.
RAY WATSON, Aramoho
Happy TV fix
I have just watched an excellent TVOne new series called The Big Fix (Tuesdays, 9.30pm) which brings together technology experts in the UK and people who need their expertise to solve their unique problems.
These include a boy born without hands or feet who was desperate to ride a bicycle, especially a BMX one; farmers needing a solution to sheep rustling (could be of help to our farmers); and — the most heartwarming of all — Graham, a 55-year-old who had suffered a massive stroke leaving him paralysed apart from his left arm and with no speech at all.
His only means of communication was a stylus to tap on an iPad — a very slow, frustrating way to make his needs heard.
The solutions to each of these problems were ingenious, took months to provide but were truly amazing. And the effect on the recipients was so worth all the efforts.
If you have not seen this programme, I urge you to give it a go.
FIONA DONNE, Aramoho
Anger drawn
I am appalled by the cartoon penned by Emmerson in today's Chronicle (December 22).
We are all used to the attempts by cartoonists (many of whom see themselves as social commentators) to "take the mickey" out of various situations, sometimes cleverly and sometimes with an acceptable disregard for political correctness.
Today's effort by Emmerson is neither — it is abhorrent. Tyre marks across Flinders St station is not funny. What will he do next ... a cartoon showing bits of infant bodies among plane-crash debris?
Shame on you, Emmerson and shame on the person who allowed publication of this
offensive picture.
D PARTNER, Eastown
Retort facile
K Benfell's ostensibly "simplistic response" to Paul Evans' alleged "tasteful question" obviously went way over his head.
The response was far from simplistic, as there is a whole history of the relationship between pagan Rome and apostolic Christendom.
A moderately educated man would have known (or at least suspected) a stronger impetus behind the response, and perhaps delved a little deeper in an effort to scratch those surfaces beyond fatuous and superficial argument.
In relation to Mr Evans' imputations of "inanity" and "illogicality" against authentic Christian believers in cleaving to such an enduring faith, it is his belief which obviously deserves such a charge.
Were such expressed views less inane and more logical — and socially sincere — they would seek their answers from the traditions of the church herself as the only reliable source to inform their understanding, rather than using a public forum such as this to air simplistic slanders against the Christian faith.
Mr Evans' question received better than it deserved.
CHRISTOPHER PIPER, Aramoho
