Right now the New Zealand 'media' is getting excited and asking the Politicians about giving guns to our "unarmed police" - they report that our Police Minister Poto Williams says that SHE represents the Maori & Polynesian constituency of NZ & that they don't want the police to be armed !!
- Back in November 2019 Superintendent Andrew Sissons of the NZ POLICE stated that they have the following arsenal available to serving officers ..
3,021 x GLOCK PISTOLS.
2,913 x AR15 (TYPE) MSSA RIFLES.
53 x Semi-Automatic MARKSMAN RIFLES.
10 x Bolt Action MARKSMAN RIFLES.
74 x Firearms Capable Of Fully Automatic Fire - SUB-MACHINE GUNS.
40 x 40mm GRENADE LAUNCHERS - for use with GAS GRENADES & SPONGE ROUNDS
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- Now I thought that our Government ministers are paid to serve the interests of all members of society concerning the functions of that Ministry - in this particular case - Policing & Law Enforcement.
I also accept that those figures are a bit 'dated' but they shouldn't have lost too many Glocks yet and I'd hope that New Zealand still has around 12,000 Police plus some 9,500 'DEFENCE' personnel.
Under normal circumstances that is more than enough MSSA's - Military Style Semi-Auto rifles and Glock pistols to fully arm every duty officer with one of each to carry around .. as long as our Maori and Pacific Islander minorities don't object.
ME? - Of course I've got an opinion on armed police .. but it centers-on our Police firstly being properly LICENSED to use & keep firearms safely as members of NZ society - and only then - thoroughly trained in the use of firearms AS WEAPONS
Marty K.
Firmly believe our Police need more than the 1 days weapons familiarization training per year.
ReplyDeleteSadly, we all know (including Poto Williams) that a disproportionate number of Maori/Pacific folk will be on the receiving end of police firearms. That is a social issue that needs to be tackled at a social level on an individual basis, regardless of race, colour or creed.
ReplyDeleteEven more sadly, such an approach will be branded 'racist' in these PC times where group identity is paramountl and THAT, above all, is the reason fir the escalating violence in society.....