Living in a low population rural location has some differences to city life. - It is very dark at night so the stars are clear & bright - but this same solitude seems to tempt some 'A-holes' to dump their neglected unloved cats out here. My old cat Lulu expired after some 18 years sharing my space & duvet - so when a wild black'n'white moggie began hanging about in my garden there was no question but that I fed it my remaining stock of cat food. It remains skittishly nervous to this day but is now looking sleek & well fed.
- I spotted a second dumpster puss devouring some very stale dry bread thrown for the birds .. crouching defensively over the crusty lumps and gulping down every crumb .. but this one came when I called it over and it was offered a bowl of meaty treats - even following me inside to sign our civil contract as "Fluffy"
#3 is a scrawny jet-black sneak-thief who creeps through the cat flap at night to noisily devour all & any 'leftovers' .. these I now top-up before turning off the lights and going to my pit.
Well three's enough for anybody - but, there's more - as an abandoned black hen arrives every morning from the shrubbery demanding feed wheat and rolled oats - and she pushes #1 'Scaredy-Cat' off his outdoor bowl in a very businesslike manner .. My early morning duties are very much a pantomime of giggles - as 'Fluffy' sings tail-twitching falsetto to 'Scaredy-Cat' through the front door glass to announce it's feeding time for the outside staff .. twice a day now.
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- I recently sold a legally police registered small, German 'C' category pistol to a private museum-collector.
What a pantomime that proved to be .. "HE'S BEHIND YOU"
From the first agreement to sell - to lodgment of the package with the Dealer for carriage - it took some 37 days with 27 e-mails - mostly resulting from answering Police's irrelevant queries & supplying requested details.
How long is the barrel? - Around 3.5 inches.
Then - What capacity is the magazine? ( - as not allowed to fire the gun no idea .. but estimated that the small grease-packed magazine might accept x7 rounds)
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- Then a week later ..What is the serial number of the magazine? ( I've never seen a s/a pistol that had a serial numbered box magazine .. are they confusing a 'C' Cat. antique compact pistol with a prohibited MSSA having "a HIGH CAPACITY CENTER FIRE MSSA MAGAZINE" owned by a collector? - It seems that they were ..
The required Police generated PERMIT TO PROCURE was eventually passed to the licensed/endorsed purchaser and then mailed to me to complete the transaction .. BUT when received ex NZ Post, I found that the permit had only TWO DAYS before it EXPIRED. - I had to complete the vendors section of the form - pack the item - and organize to make the 150 minute return trip to a correctly licensed FIREARMS DEALER in Christchurch to engage with their network Courier System .. this was possible within the two days - but after carriage the Permit would have expired - making it unlawful for the buyer to take possession.
Further e-mails and efforts to contact the local arms officer eventually yielded the instruction message to not worry about the expiring Permit and "SEND IT".
PAPERWORK eh ..
REGISTRATION eh ..
How on earth does the police hierarchy think that they will achieve ANY meaningful value from applying total chaos to record the details of every long-arm carried in New Zealand since the earliest sealers, whalers and settlers landed here .. when they are not capable of properly securing the few registered 'endorsed' items they claim to administer already?
- The arms officer dealing with a previous S&W revolver I sold had to ask for my assistance as he had found record of at least THREE other revolvers elsewhere claiming the SAME serial number.
I hope that the Flying Spaghetti Monster comes to help our overworked and under resourced frontline officers deal with the necessary functions of policing while they are elsewhere engaged.
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Marty K.
Hi Marty The mysteries of serial numbers are way beyond the comprehension of 'gummint minions'! Some manufacturers start with 1 regardless of the model, some start from 1 with each model, some start from 1001, some start from a random number that denotes the beginning of their allocated production run, some start with a letter or a series of letters which have different significance to the various makers, some allocate a different prefix letter at every 10,000 items made, many early manufacturers never used any numbers, many used batch numbers that covered several guns, etc, etc. Taking into account all the various makes, models and calibres manufactured then the serial numbers could be considered unique as required by law, but many firearms have part numbers on them which are often confused for serial numbers by the minions, hence many duplications. The short answer is that a universal registration system is doomed to failure from the outset. The architects of the scheme have no idea of the massive data base they need to make it even marginally useful, a data base that is rendered useless by one misplaced keystroke. Some folks just never learn from the mistakes of others, or in NZ's case, from the mistake they themselves perpetrated from 1920 to 1983 when they realised the registration system had achieved nothing! Of course, those that do understand enough to help make such a system work will never raise a hand to help.
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