Thread: 20,000 guns stolen per year according to the ODT

I am not sure if I am working the comments properly, or whether the ODT is declining to put up my comments, but the comments I made yesterday have not been displayed.
I just made another version (not as good, but I cant remember exactly) which I put up just now;

We understand writing about guns is "sexy", but this sensationalist piece quoting figures from Mr Cahill of the NZ Police is disappointing.
Mr Cahilll claims 20,000 firearms are stolen or sold to criminals every year. Every year mind. This would indeed be a flood of dire proportions if it were true. But it's not. 700 firearms were stolen over 2014 and 2015. That is only 19,300 less than Mr Cahill's figure.
So lately we are left with the idiot up north who was caught with 14 hidden in his roof and no license, and the recent burglary in Dunedin. That's only 19,958 less than Mr Cahills figure. That's so far out, you might as well say that the 20,000 figure was just made up.
So there is not a flood of firearms falling into the hands of criminals. That should be a relief to whoever wrote this opinion piece.
Mr Cahill is preparing the ground for an attempt to further stiffen firearms laws in NZ - but then Mr Cahill seems unaware that the firearms he is concerned about are already restricted, and already registered.
Meanwhile the writer of the piece got a sexy piece about guns printed, and didn't have to bother with the unsexy stuff, like fact checking.