thresholding

I support the Maori party and opposition parties call for firearms not to be kept in all police cars. Who will get shot by them disproportionatley - Maori that's who - guns in all cars means more shootings and more maimings. 50% of males in jail are maori and 60% of females are maori and they got there after their inital contact with the police. We have seen the horrible shooting of a young man - and with more firearms in police cars, the chance of it happening more often is dramatically increased.

From Voxy

"The Maori Party said Ms Collins had acted hastily by indicating support for guns to be routinely carried in police cars."

"The police have not even completed their report on the idea and already the minister has jumped the gun," said MP Te Ururoa Flavell.

He said his party saw the introduction of a mass rollout of guns in police cars as an extreme action which rapidly elevated New Zealand's position along the "continuum of indicators of violence".

"This year, New Zealand was ranked for the second year in a row as top of the 2010 Global Peace Index -- 1st out of 149 nations. This is a ranking we should be proud to protect. It represents a culture of peace which we should be looking to preserve," Mr Flavell said.

He feared normalising the use of guns would lower the bar about what was an appropriate threshold for responding to problems.

Good arguments there - well done. Unfortunately i seem to have been taken off the maori party press release email list - can I go back on please?

The report is still to come in and I hope that it recommends other options than putting firearms in police cars. I have left the almost last word to minister collins

"I'm the minister who goes to see police officers when they're shot and in hospital and goes to see their families when they're killed. I'm not prepared to sit around and say 'well lets worry about offenders'. Actually I'm more worried about our police officers."

Thank you for your honesty, on your head be it.