This past Saturday night a man paid with his life for simply requesting that a neighbour turn down loud music that was preventing his small children from getting to sleep.
The enraged neighbour produced a gun and shot him in the chest. Two of his children witnessed his death on his own front lawn.
It was a senseless killing and when the facts become known it is likely that alcohol or drugs will play a part. The other factor will certainly be the presence of a firearm in this quiet, suburban neighbourhood.
Firearms were once a normal part of many households. During the great depression some families only survived because the out of work breadwinner was able to shoot rabbits and hares in the surrounding bush to supplement the food supply.
Today, there must be thousands of unregistered firearms stashed away because the process for legally registering as a shooter has been made progressively more difficult. For a city shooter, the requirement is written consent from a farmer to be able to shoot on a country property.
Apart from the civil liberties types who refuse to give up their guns there are also many souvenirs - usually pistols - brought back by troops returning from the second world war.
Huge efforts have been made to cull these prohibited weapons. These included a " no questions asked " buy-back amnesty - which netted a large trove of guns of various types to appeals accompanied by short term amnesties.
Now we are seeing the " get tough " approach. Any person caught in possession of an unregistered firearm faces a gaol term - but even this does not seem to have got through to many people.
The pity of it is that on Saturday night one firearm in the community robbed a decent, family man of his life and left four children fatherless. When will we ever learn ?
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