In New Zealand, following the “ hand in your guns “ campaign by the hijab wearing Fearless Leader Jacinda Ardern, the canny Kiwis came up with a great little money-spinner. Rummage around in Grandpa’s garage, find a few old rusty guns and rifles, hand them in and walk away with a nice little pocket of dosh. And the stash of your good guns hidden away for Ron. ( In the local downunder vernacular, Ron is Later On. )

Gun legislation does not work.

Just think of the Lindt Cafe siege in Sydney Australia. In 2014, many long years since Australians handed in their guns after the Port Arthur Massacre, Man Haron Monis, a self-declared Islamic State sympathiser, took 18 people hostage inside the Lindt Café on Martin Place in Sydney's CBD. 

Bad people will always do bad things. The weapon of choice can be a gun, a knife, a car, a fist, a bomb or a piece of paper. 

It is true that guns, in the hands of the wrong people, are wicked. And no one with a mind free of mental illness, would think otherwise.

Perhaps mentally ill people, democrats, lefties and social justice warriors should be banned from owning guns?

But I repeat myself.

In so much as a kind and decent man, in possession of a penis, is not automatically a rapist ( despite the protestations of many radical feminazi’s ) a good man, in possession of a firearm does not a murderer make.

Poor Jane Austen. My apologies. 

The premise is that if you ban certain people from having certain firearms, things will magically become better.

Well, tell that to the people in Kunming Railway Station in the capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province. A group of knife-wielding men killed at least 29 people and injured more than 130 others. 

No doubt banning cutlery will become all the rage in China. Though " fork you, ya bastard ! " would probably be heard through a steel door welded shut and spoonerisms would become pandemic. Those ducking forks would become quite prolific. 

 But I digress.... 

Over the years I have known men with a great deal of firepower, and staggeringly, they are good and decent fellows who work hard, support their families, pay their taxes and believe in old fashioned traditional conservative values.

Yet, the myth persists.

Guns can be evil. Yes, they are capable of killing. After all, that is their intent.

Yet who could argue that the ability to humanely end the life of an injured animal quickly and without unnecessary trauma is evil? Most farmers around the world know this. Who could decry someone for shooting a home invader, hell-bent on rape and destruction of life and property?  

Maslow, in his famous pyramid, pointed out that our primary need is to breathe. Which obviously requires us to be nourished and in reasonable health. Our next need is safety.

When some  criminal walks into a bank or shopping centre wielding an AR-15 or similar, our first thoughts will move to safety and our basic need of continuing to breathe. Thoughts of love, belonging, self esteem and self actualisation tend to be the furthest thoughts from our minds in times of danger. 

Having been in a few of these situations, not by the firearm wielding mentally challenged,  but by those with rather large fists , pieces of wood and disappointingly bad attitudes, I can attest to the desire to maintain my safety and to keep breathing.

Had I, on those occasions, had a weapon capable of firing a bullet at one of the miscreants, I would have gladly launched it from its’ housing and shot the bastard displaying the disappointingly bad attitude.

By the way, this was in a work environment, not a domestic environment, and I take this opportunity to applaud our much undervalued Police, Correctional staff, medical staff and paramedics.

I recollect a time, 14 years ago, when I attended a course where the lecturer expounded the merits of Maslow’s Triangle. He asked how many of us agreed. I quickly raised my hand in agreement. Yet one woman, a few seats across from me stood and said something that has stayed with me all this time.

She said

“ I believe that the most important thing in our lives is control. To ensure that we are in charge of our ability to breathe, to eat, to find shelter, to remain safe. Without control over these things, we cannot ever reach the top of the pyramid and become fully self determining, self loving people. We cannot do anything without the ability to CONTROL OUR OWN lives. “

It hit me like a huge light bulb moment. Then, and now, I believe that control over OWN lives is the only way we can fulfil Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. When we HAVE  to turn to our Government to feed us, to house us, to keep us safe, to think what we want to think then we have no hope of ever achieving self actualisation.

When some bastard wants to massacre a great number of people, a family or just one person, let us do one simple thing.

Make all firearms look like this one.

I defy any would be robber, murderer or bully to walk in to a crowded place, extract this from his hold all, announce his attention to honour Allah or anyone else and not expect the would be victims and eye witnesses to laugh.

It could actually be a rather good idea.

And while we are at it, let’s do the same for rapists.

Give them all a Rainbow Tattoo of My Little Pony.  On their dick. It might just work.