REGISTRATION FAILS.

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1425, 10 November 1923, Page 7

REGISTRATION FAILS.

RESTRICTING- USE OF FIREARMS Since the inauguration of the firearms registration there have occurred incidents which show that the regulations, though not being effective, expose law-abiding citizens to serious risks. The tragedy at Waikino, for instance, reveals the existence of an automatic pistol which has not come under the notice of the authorities. This is not the only time an automatic pistol has appeared in tragic circumstances, and the public naturally is beginning to wonder how many more of these dangerous weapons may be hidden in this country. , . . The disclosures, of which the Waikino tragedy is one, are disquieting. In this country the State has decreed that no one shall have automatic firearms in -his possession, and if this decree has been defied it means that they are being retained by people who on the face ,of it are not law-abiding. Decent citizens are entitled to demand that the Government shall proceed straightaway to the investigation of all the records at Its disposal so that the risk ,of these Illegal weapons being in dangerous hands may be minimised, if it cannot be entirely rempved.—Southland Times.