Posts by Angela Hart
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Hard News: Hate and guns, in reply to Bart Janssen,
there are thousands of towns with strong gun control regulations – they d
must be helluva confusing for people who travel around the country, figuring out and complying with local regs
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I agree Bart, he is doing what he can given that the US is the largest free range asylum in the world.
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Hard News: Hate and guns, in reply to Martin Brown,
The process for obtaining a license is stringent and high quality. However there is a problem in that a license lasts for ten years and there are no further checks on a person's suitability during that time unless the person comes to the attention of the police in circumstances which would make them want to check.
The cuts to license testing which Mountain Safety are implementing now will reduce the number of locations where people can sit the test. Making it more difficult for people in some areas to access the safety lecture and the test. This may have the consequence of more people using firearms without a license.
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Hard News: Hate and guns, in reply to Matthew Poole,
Uh, say what? The Police can revoke anyone’s firearms licence at any time if they believe the “fit and proper person” requirement is no longer met.
I mean that the police have no way to know that a person holding a firearms license may no longer be a "fit and proper person" unless something to indicate that is brought to their attention. Most people go through quite a lot of change in ten years.
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Hah! The vetting and testing process for a gun license is pretty good, but it's a ten year license with no review process to trigger for mental health or any other concerns.
The guts have just been pulled from the Mountain Safety Council run safety training and license testing process, presumably for cost savings. Which means increased temptation for people to purchase guns illegally and without going through the vetting, training and testing process. We are not moving in the right direction and there are a great many guns in New Zealand, although not so many rapid fire assault type weapons or pistols- which is why sawn off shotguns are so popular with crims, they're not as convenient as a pistol but they can be concealed and they can be lethal.
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Access: Fighting seclusion with…, in reply to Rosemary McDonald,
clarification was sought from his office and means and asset testing for HCSS was ruled out.
There is already a degree of means testing in place for older people regarding Home and Community Support Services. Only personal care support is provided free of charge to older adults whose income is above a threshold. (I'm not sure what the threshold is, probably National Super). If you are an older adult with, for instance, income from a pension scheme on top of your National Super, you are not eligible for HCSS other than personal care. I have a good friend in this situation, who has to pay for assistance to go grocery shopping and keep her home and linen clean, but someone to listen outside the bathroom door in case she slips while showering is provided free of charge.
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apparently Godzone needs defending to the tune of 20 billion (over 15 years). http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/305878/nz-defence-force-to-get-$20bn-upgrade
This is clearly a much more important and pressing problem than poverty, homelessness or making proper provision for Ashley and the many others in similar illegal, immoral, unhealthy and inhuman situations. -
Polity: Budget 2016: Fantasyplan, in reply to Alfie,
YES! It's the beginning of possibility for change, and boy, do we need it.
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may I say the thought of headless politicians is at times extremely appealing
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weakness of evidence-based policy – somebody still selects which evidence
when is evidence not really evidence at all? When it's carefully selected and the weight of opinion of the professional or scientific bodies concerned is ignored.
This makes "evidence-based policy" a joke that none of us can afford to laugh at. Evidence based medicine in the U.S. can suffer from the same problem of people seeing only the evidence they want to see. I hope we're immune from that.