16th September 2004

Fix Flakey Firearms Laws

New Zealand First law and order spokesman Ron Mark has expressed his outrage at the decision of a judge to impose a sentence of 350 hours community work on an offender who was found to be carrying a stolen semi automatic military-style firearm.

“This is the softest, most pathetic sentence imaginable” said Mr Mark.

“That the firearm was accompanied by a find of hidden drugs gives further cause for alarm” added Mr Mark, and he described the sentence as a “dangerous and unsafe indication of how far out of touch some judiciary have become from the communities that they are paid to serve.

“Just what does an armed criminal have to do to be put in jail today?” he asked.

“Druggies don’t carry illegally obtained firearms for decoration, they do so in the full expectation that they will use them, and I have no reason to believe it was otherwise in this instance.

”I urge the Police Minister to ensure that the Police appeal this dreadful decision with a view to ensuring this particular armed offender is put behind bars.

“If that fails, he should immediately tell the Minister for Justice to change the laws so that people who commit crimes whilst in possession of stolen or inappropriately obtained military-style firearms get an automatic five years in jail, “ said Mr. Mark.

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>