Opinion: Violent Extremism Not Limited to One Flavour or Colour
Author(s):
“15 March 2019 saw four issues collide and explode with horrific brutality into our collective consciousness. It was truly a stripping away of naivety and innocence for our country. Those four issues are:
Decades long failure of New Zealand governments and agencies to protect citizens from Military Style Semi-Automatic (MSSA) firearms;
Terrorism as a reality for New Zealand, not an abstract concept or something happening elsewhere in the world;
Confirmation that yet another type of violent extremism poses a real threat to life, and
Reinforcement of the fact New Zealand authorities must now be able to respond to violent extremism on home-soil, or wherever they detect it, because the Internet connects us all.
The sad truth about the gun buy-back scheme, implemented with praiseworthy speed by the current government, is that it was 29 years too late. And, because of that delay 51 people died and 40 were seriously injured …”