Increase in Requests for Gun Licenses

Not here, in New Zealand:

Big jump in numbers seeking gun licence

Aspiring Asian gun-owners, growing numbers of recreational hunters and the rise of the lifestyle block are being credited for an increase in the number of people seeking gun licences.

A memo to police shows the number of first-time applicants for firearms licences almost doubled in six years, from 4654 in 2001 to 8370 last year.

Dang near doubled. Good on ya, my Kiwi brothers and sisters!

But, seeing as anti-gun hysteria is a worldwide media affliction, they can't pass up making a point. Even though they say:

Mr Green said raw statistics showed crime involving firearms had slipped since 10 years ago from 1.7 per cent of all violent crime to 1.28 per cent.

Suicides involving firearms had decreased and the homicide rate involving firearms had dropped 35 per cent in the past 15 years, he said.

They have to end their piece with this:

FIREARMS INCIDENTS

* May 28, 2008: A 59-year-old Turangi man is shot dead while pig hunting.
* May 3, 2008: Two Southland duck hunters, Kelly Mitchell, 27, and Blair Wynne, 26, are injured in two separate incidents near Wyndham on the opening day of duck-shooting season.
* March 15, 2008: Aron Timms, 18, of Taradale is killed after allegedly being mistaken for a deer and shot while hunting in the Tarawera region.
* September 2007: A 19-year-old Palmerston North man is critically injured after being shot in the head by a friend while out hunting with friends.
* May 2007: Bill White, 40, is killed by best friend Shane Phibbs while hunting in the Rough River area near Reefton.
* May 2005: Anthony Hurihanganui, 10, is critically wounded after being shot in the stomach by his 6-year-old cousin in Waikite Valley near Rotorua.
* April 2005: William Gillies is shot by friend Bernard Lee while hunting near Taupo.

They can't help themselves, I tell ya. It's in their damn DNA.