Banking Safely

Well, here’s a nice little segue from yesterday’s blog.

Guns have been in my face since I took the photo of that sign in the ‘mall’. Out running this morning I noticed that a new crop of stalls had arrived over night, full of tourist treasures – rubber shoes for those with faint-hearted feet, cheap sunglasses and hats, towels, rubber mats, the inevitable speedos and…. machine guns. Yes indeedy, toy machine guns. And, not being one to miss much, I noticed that some politically correct tourist had purchased one for their son who was wandering around town with it. Maybe it is politically correct here?

I was waiting in the bank with a friend, looking around, taking it all in, and noticed the security guard at the door. Quite a young guy, not very robust, and I got to wondering what he would do if there was an issue (there are security guards in a lot of places, the phone shop for example) and THEN I noticed that he was wearing a gun, which put a different road map on my wonderings. It was suddenly obvious what he would do if there was A Bit Of An Issue. (I understand that Zagreb wins hands down (or hands up) for the highest number of bank robberies).

Which sent me trawling the internet to see what was what;
• There are 969,000 private guns thought to be in Croatia – only 371,000 are registered.
• To get a gun licence (to be a registered gun holder) you need to be 18 years or older, be of sane mind, be able to show those inspecting that you have a safe lockup for said gun.
• Be able to show that you have a genuine reason for requiring a gun - hunting, personal security.
• 2006 statistics showed that there were 74 homicides that year, of which 37 were gun related
• You can carry them as long as they are holstered and not loaded. (Osim u mallu – except in the mall).

By way of comparison, the population in Croatia on 25 May 2011 (I wondered if they counted me?) was 4.485, so pretty close to New Zealand’s population. The current registered gun count for New Zealand is 230,000.

I’m not trying to make any points here at all or draw any parallels, except that it is plain to me that my PC stance may not be a stance here.

I have to admit that I was fairly extreme with regards my attitude to parenting and guns (not in that order) to the extent that I remember not letting my children make gun shapes from their crusts. (Quote “ guns are not toys, they kill people” unquote. Such an earnest young mother!). I guess in the context that attitude here would be laughable if it wasn’t such a real part of the lives of many ten years ago.

I have to admit that I had to laugh at my naivety as I sat waiting in the bank, eyeing up that security guard’s gun – and it put a new twist on the mall sign.