[MicroBalrog]

Armed offenders callout in Ruatoria ends peacefully
13 December 2003

Traffic on the main East Coast highway was held up for about five hours yesterday after Armed Offender Squad members were called to Ruatoria, 130km north east of Gisborne.


Sergeant Eddie Keelan of Ruatoria police said a man gave himself up peacefully to police at the end of the incident.

Police were told yesterday afternoon that a man who had no licence was in possession of a firearm. Because of information received from the family, it was decided to bring the AOS squad from Gisborne as a precaution.

Police cordoned off a house just north of the township and three other houses were evacuated.

The state highway was closed on either side of Ngarimu Hill about three kilometres north of the township.


http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2757416a11,00.html

[Mark Tyson]

New Zealanders have to have licenses, as I understand it, for different kinds of guns. Military style semi-automatics("assault weapons") are legal there with the proper license. From a collector's standpoint they have it better than we in the US do, for the moment.

Edited for spelling

[JoshM]

Ruatoria is a small country town that is currently the center of a small and murderous gang war, which is the reason the regional Armed Offenders squad is regularly in that town.

Police were told yesterday afternoon that a man who had no licence was in possession of a firearm. Because of information received from the family, it was decided to bring the AOS squad from Gisborne as a precaution.

Unlawful possession of a firearm normally does not warrant this sort of response. Information from the family was probably like, "yeah... Buck does have a temper and he hangs with the local mobsters".

The A class firearms licence [rifle/shotgun] is a background check with two referees and a 2 hour simple hunting/firearm safety test.

Very easy... Some High Schools do the training/testing for their students.

BTW
"Main East Coast Highway":rolleyes: More like tar sealed goat track, beautiful but very remote.