ILLEGAL POSSESSION OF FIREARMS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22951, 20 May 1949, Page 4

ILLEGAL POSSESSION OF FIREARMS

Sir.—-If concern is caused by the illegal possession of firearms the law can be amended to legalise the ownership by registration which is not at present allowed. This is not, of course, applicable to stolen American guns. ' It is well know that large numbers of pistols are held by reputable veterans of two wars. Many of these guns are not registered because it is not now possible to do so without prosecution and forfeiture. For various reasons these veterans may object to handing them in. Thousands of arms have been dumped in the sea in New Zeoland and England which would have been useful in the war as ammunition was soon available to fit the most useful types. During the crisis Britain appealed to American sportsmen for arms to defend British homes and they gave them. After the Soho murder the British authorities collected all the weapons they could and put them in the sea. Now., the Americans know all about, this as it was made public through a magazine in U.S.A. If another appeal was necessary what would they say? In New Zealand at the Japanese crisis there were not nearly enough pistols (or anything else) to go round. Boer' war period revolvers were issued bv the Army to fill the gap caused by the modern arms thrown out. The shortage was not caused by the Army but bv the Government’s refusal to heed General Russell and others who told it over a year* before the outbreak that there was a serious shortage of arms in New Zealand. There was an Armv captain who went about with an obsolete .455 revolver of obscure make that would not turn the cylinder, let alone fire? He carried that gun on his. belt till the American .38’s came to hand much later on. Let the veteran keep his gun and give the police the best hand-guns procurable for their job. not the out-of-date arms they now use. Lots of these guns are kept by respectable people for the same reason they were required in the war crisis. Others are used by pest eradiegtors in the country. . “UNARMED.