Do we really want to give bored retail staff guns?

Folks, we feel righteously angry when a Police Officer is attacked and beaten up, they are societies ability to maintain law and order, an attack on them is an attack on society, but using these extreme moments of violence against our Police force as the reason we should arm all Police is gun loving opportunism at its worst.

The issue for rural Police is under staffing, why double bunk prisoners when we should be double bunking rural Police? Of the thousands of incidents and 111 calls to police throughout the year, only a tiny percentage require weapons to coerce the situation, if we arm all our ill trained Police force with guns, we are responding to that tiny fraction of conflicts with a lethal force that then bleeds into every other contact between the Police and citizens.

Do any of us really want that 20 year old cop with 19 weeks training, a uniform, a fast car and $50 000 base salary to have a gun as well? The current Police TV recruitment adverts have a bored car park attendant repainting the car parks so customers can't open their doors after they've parked. NZ, do you really want to give a gun to that guy?

Do you really want to give bored retail staff guns?




Better the Armed offenders squad who have more than a couple of hours gun practice a year take on criminals with guns than we simply hand guns out to every Police Officer.