Browner_

This weekend, a hardworking (yes, Indian) store owner in Auckland was shot dead for a few ciggies and a dozen beer.

Now New Zealand is a small country and we shouldnt have stories like this too often, but I tell you, I'm damned if Id work in a convenience store.

Just what sort of drugged up scum are wandering the streets?

Also last week, was the story of the retired Marlborough man who had been regularly blinding the captains of the Picton Ferry with laser lights.

When the police finally apprehended him he was found with
"17 pistols, two military-style semi automatic weapons, four sniper-style rifles and a variety of other rifles and shotguns". And he was bailed.
I bet youd like to come across him on one of your country tramps.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/...514625&ref=rss

What is the matter with people??????????

mcuddy1

Yes the country has a lot of scumbags, but hey so does the UK.

The thing I can't get my head round is the Kiwi liking for firearms, does it make them feel macho? (loud exhausts as well)

I don't understand the pleasure anyone can get from shooting animals, seems a wide spread pastime over here.
Rednecks make up a lot of the population out of the cities.

kiwinow

Maybe amongst the hunting fraternity but, hey, the cops don't have guns!

southerner

The hunting thing is an evolved genetic trait in all populations. Maybe kiwi males just get to display it more prominently. "Rednecks" is an american term isn't it, I'm not sure its applicable??

Browner_

Yeah, but its supposed to be better in NZ, else theres not a lot of point in coming here is there?

And apart from the scumbags and the backwards gun and hunting mentality, you mention the other scourge of NZ - the loud exhaust! God I hate it just to hear one , and they are everywhere.

And yes the rednecks too, it seems that sheepshagging is okay, but gays - no way! With some of my work colleagues, if you even try and mention that maybe being gay is actually okay, they look at me as if I was totally deranged.

ErikR

Who ever said it was better? Despite it's beautiful scenery, NZ is still "just another western country". On the other hand, had this happened in Berlin or Frankfurt, it would have been in the newspaper as well.... page 28, lower right corner.. between a few dodgy ads.

Browner_

Why would so many Brits emigrate here if they thought it was worse? Just trying to point out that maybe NZ is not really like the image it has in the UK.

ErikR

No no I'm not saying it's worse I wouldn't move to NZ if it was worse than here. Then again, I don't expect it to be paradise either. Crime is everywhere - even murder. Killing the store owner for any reason is bad of course, no matter where it happened. However, such violent crimes aren't as common (yet) as they are in Europe - let alone the US. But the tragic fact is - they do happen, even in New Zealand.

newt

Many of us in the boonies are rednecks, without being gay, or anti-gay, or sheepshaggers, or even (gasp) racist.

Personally, I think the liquor store owner in question should have been allowed to have a shotgun under the counter. Yes, I really do think that.

I have said a few things connected with this subject in my short time on this forum. I'm still trying to be objective. For those who haven't followed my rantings, I am a New Zealander born and bred, and I still live here.

I was born in what is now part of West Auckland (it wasn't, back then), I grew up in the Waikato from the age of six, I spent a few years in Auckland after leaving school, I lived in Britain - for which I have dual nationality thanks to Senior - for three years, and for the past 15 years I have lived in the South Island. I'm here on this board because my marriage has come to an end, and I'm trying to find out about Canada, from people of similar ilk, who may have experience of same.

In the UK, I lived for a year and a half in Hounslow, Hounslow West, and Heston; "Little India" they called the place, and I loved it. Am I a racist? You know, I really don't think so.

South Auckland; now there's a place. My Mum's family grew up there, having arrived in '41 after escaping the Occupation of Denmark by less than a week.

From my earliest recollections, ie early seventies, through to late eighties, I watched that place devolve into a sh1thole. Apologies for language. That's how I see it.

I could rave for hours, but I won't; suffice to say that there are large differences between different places in New Zealand, in terms of people and attitudes.

Now tell me please, what is it that you find backwards, about the gun and hunting mentality? It is very prevalent, and very mainstream, here. I own seven firearms. I have had a firearms licence since I was 16. I have never commited a crime with my firearms. I hunt a lot, and I eat pretty much everything I shoot, other than pests. Kiwis like to shoot things. We're good at it, and we own lots of guns. Guns are cool. We like to kill animals with our guns. We like to eat animals which we have killed. We don't much commit crimes with our firearms, because we're not like that. The scrote who shot the liquor store owner in Auckland? I'll give you a million bucks to your quid, that he doesn't have a licence, and that the firearm is illegal.

There are many reasons why this country isn't paradise. But there are also many reasons why, for the arriving Brit, it can be. Almost nowhere is like it appears on National Geographic.

If I can help in explaining the differences, I'm more than happy to do that.

Genesis

And apart from the scumbags and the backwards gun and hunting mentality, you mention the other scourge of NZ - the loud exhaust! God I hate it just to hear one , and they are everywhere.


Far, far less noisy exausts around these parts....the petrol price hike does have a silver lining..the boy racer morons have waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay less dollar these days to fill up their Shitarus etc!!!!!

Kiwiprincess

I tend to agree. I don't like guns, but I am not blinkered to their usage. Not some blinkered suburban dweller is me. Owning a gun does *not* mean that someone is a criminal, about to become a criminal or have criminal tendencies. Most gun owners are licenced, and of those I know of, responsible people. Quite different of course that someone who shoots something with a stolen sawn off shotgun. You're right, they are scrotes.

I suppose the Pollyanna in me is grateful that I live in a country where this is news. Shouldn't happen though, and it is incredibly worrying if gun crime does become more and more prevalent.

I quite like the fact that police don't carry guns on their person in NZ, but I would not be surprised if in the future more and more police become licenced to carry them in high risk areas. Not that it would solve the end problem though of criminals carrying and using guns.

mcuddy1

No sorry still don't get the guns are cool thing.

It's the whole macho thing you know, fast loud cars, guns etc it all seems a bit caveman to me.(I am not Mr Sophisticated)

Why is it so much fun to go shooting animals is it the thrill of the hunt and the need to fulfill some kind of basic instinct you have?
I suppose it could be in the Kiwi gene pool and it keeps going round and round.

newt

Could be a troglodyte thing I suppose, and yes, there is always a bit of a thrill with a kill; that said, I probably come home empty handed as often as I fill the freezer. Wild animals do taste better than farmed ones though, and that's an opinion I've heard from plenty of non-hunters as well.

Dunno about the gene pool thing, mine's all imported.

misterjingo

From reading the MBTTUK area of this forum, it seems those who emigrate due to the perception of somewhere being better or the place they are moving from going to the dogs, they usually end up ping-ponging and being generally unhappy.

I think many emigrate to NZ because they get the opportunity to do it (job offer etc), or they want a change of lifestyle which isn't availible in the UK without being quite rich.

misterjingo

You could be onto something there - it's usually the most affluent in the UK who enjoy hunting and gun collecting
Just kidding