The Humiliation Of New Zealand Gun Owners
BY Herschel Smith
5 years, 2 months ago
From a reader, news from New Zealand.
A man who took a bullet for his country is getting over the ordeal of being “interrogated” after he tried to get into a gun buyback event with his support dog in Canterbury.
Dion Taka took his service dog, Delta, with him when he went to hand his guns over in Rakaia on Saturday. It was already a daunting prospect for the war veteran.
Badly wounded when he was shot in Afghanistan in 2012 in the Battle of Baghak, he now lives with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and type-2 complex regional pain syndrome.
For the past two-and-a-half years, Taka has been able to resume some of his independence with Delta by his side. She is able to recognise his anxiety and calm him down, and performs a raft of other duties including fetching medication.
“It took me a couple of weeks to decide to go [to the gun buyback], but I knew I had to,” Taka said. “I just put on a happy, brave front to get though it.”
He walked in and was greeted by a row of police officers down one side and a row of contractors down the other, all dressed in black.
Taka said one of the contractors immediately called him back to put his rifle and accessories on the desk, and tie Delta, who was wearing her service jacket, up outside.
“I told him, ‘she is a service dog, she is working’. But he told me again to tie her up outside.”
When Taka again refused, the contractor asked why he needed a service dog.
“I told him, ‘for situations like this. I have PTSD’. Then he asked me what I was there for, which was a pretty stupid question. I told him was there to hand my guns in.”
Taka said the contractor then whistled at him “like a dog” two or three times and asked if he ought to own a gun if he had PTSD.
He said the contractor also told him he should “see someone” instead of just having a dog to stroke.
Contractor. In other words, someone being paid money for confiscating weapons from other men. I wish the dog had turned and bitten him in the ass.
So contractor, quit being a coward. Go earn your creds by doing this across the pond.
On October 2, 2019 at 5:51 am, Matt said:
Big mistake to comply with the confiscation to begin with.
On October 2, 2019 at 7:29 am, Heywood said:
@Matt. Amen!
On October 2, 2019 at 8:16 am, Okanogan Offgrid said:
“Contractor. In other words, someone being paid money for confiscating weapons from other men.”
In my world, “contractor” is another word for mercenary. But then again, I guess we just said the same thing.