It is always a 'joke'.

Not so funny for this officer and his family though,

<Sergeant Gary Hamrey shot in face during a hold up, returns fire
AAP September 27, 2013 12:35PM

A GOLD Coast police officer is being hailed for extraordinary bravery after firing on two bandits who shot him in the face.

And when help finally arrived, his first concern was for the welfare of his police dog.

Gold Coast dog squad chief Sergeant Gary Hamrey was shot without warning early today after cornering two men who had allegedly held up the Arundel Tavern at Parkwood.

The alleged bandits had fled into a nearby residential street and holed themselves up beside a garden shed.

In dangerous, dark conditions, Sgt Hamrey and his police dog tracked down the pair, who were armed with a gun and a machete.

As he approached, the veteran officer was shot in the face.

Despite his injuries, he and a colleague were able to return fire, striking the bandits in the legs and feet.

"Despite the fact he was wounded, he was able to regain his composure and he and the other officer both returned fire," Assistant Commissioner Graham Rynders told reporters.
.....

The shooting came before a court delayed handing down sentences for a man and a woman convicted of murdering another Gold Coast police officer in 2011.

Detective Damien Leeding was fatally wounded as he responded to an armed holdup at the Pacific Pines Tavern that year.

Today is also Police Remembrance Day, which remembers the police who have died in the line of duty.
.....
He says police numbers on the Gold Coast are inadequate, and penalties for firearm offences must be toughened.>

http://tinyurl.com/Gold-Coast-shootings

to be continued..

contd..

Images after the shooting murder of Coomera detective Sen-Constable Damian Leeding outside an ordinary suburban Gold Coast tavern,

http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2013/09/25/458816_crime-and-court-news.html

Why would you ever want to deliberately conflate these ferals with their illegal weapons with respectable, law-abiding citizens who are legally licensed and farm, compete in international events and cull pest animals from farms? That is difficult to explain outside of hoplophobia and odd values.

You, Belly and others really ought to apologise. But you will never do that. You will never even attempt to understand and come to grips with your own crooked thinking that results from your blind prejudices.

You apparently possess compartmentalised minds where it is quite OK, laudable even, to disrespect and sledge police and respectable citizens, yet you are all for the 'rights' of criminals.

That post needs attention, even if I have time and again stated my pure contempt for its author.
Free speech demands he have the right to his views.
So have I the right to mine.
First I unlike our poster UNDERSTAND some have a good reason for thoughts that are not shared.
What then is the reason for OTB being so rude and crude to many posters.
Is the Gentleman a writer of Children's story books.
He tells me I should be sorry!
For what? not my stated view a cop, a good one is worth far more than we ever could afford to pay them.
Both in NSW and Qld police deaths the bloke invents my thoughts and then slanders me with that invention, I nearly broke down on hearing off that police death and others of kids never to see the dad they loved!, every killer of cops should be hung!
This scramble egg of a bloke invents thoughts I do not hold then convicts me with holding them.
This country is not Hill Billy heaven, not ranting red necked Hell!
We the majority, from every side of politics, DO NOT WANT GUN CONTROL TO BE TAKEN AWAY.
Now may I say as this poster has to see very many in words less offensive than those rants he uses, Sir I place no value on your mind and thoughts.
As I time and again express my wish to have no contact are you OTB trolling me?
Post what you wish but not please not in your blind and rude fashion referring to me.

Belly, you said "We the majority, from every side of politics, DO NOT WANT GUN CONTROL TO BE TAKEN AWAY."

I agree with you, I want to see more gun control particularly with regard to criminals.
I want to see controls in place that allow a vulnerable person, such as the lady in her seventies, being able to legally possess a pistol for her personal defence.
I want to see the farmer's wife legally allowed to keep the .410 shotgun in her kitchen and a couple of shells in her apron pocket, so that she can deal with any predators that come around.
At the moment she has to unlock the gun safe and then the ammunition box, by which time the fox has killed all of her chickens.
Yes, we need gun control, sane gun control that allows the law abiding to have the most effective means of defence.

Do you think that victims of rape and murder, such as Anita Cobby, should have been denied a means of protection that could have stopped their attackers?

Same old story
None of the 'bad guys' handed in their guns.

'Gun control' is based on the flawed premise that banning guns will ban murder, or (more limited) that banning guns will ban murder by firearm.

The stupidity of the claim is so obvious as to not require any argument against it. However, the premise is immediately refuted by the recent shootings of police in Queensland.

A senior Qld police officer commenting on the shooting said, "police numbers on the Gold Coast are inadequate, and penalties for firearm offences must be toughened".

Similar statements have been made by experienced police time and time again. They have also said that the violence is linked to gangs and drugs.

Honestly, does it take a brick Council dunny to fall on the heads of some to make them realise that 'gun control' is absolute BS. It is just populist spin to direct attention away from the simple truths that:

- government has no simple, effective remedy for the burgeoning crime associated with illicit drugs;

- many members of the public support the gangs by consuming recreational drugs themselves, thereby delivering millions of dollars to the criminal networks; and

- police and authorities are losing the battle. Taxes would have to be higher to provide anywhere near the police presence and cooperation to even slow the growth of drug trafficking and the crimes associated with it.

chrisgaff1000, "None of the 'bad guys' handed in their guns"

That is right. It is a fact that some here really don't want to know.

It also escapes their attention that there always was a ban on unlicensed persons obtaining and using firearms. There always were prohibited weapons as well.

That means of course that wrongdoers couldn't get a licence and they were never allowed to own or use one. That was pre-Howard and the Howard inspired 'initiatives' only changed the laws affecting the honest, law-abiding, licensed citizens.

In addition, the full spectrum of possible offences that could be committed with firearms were already covered by existing laws. For example, killing was always against the law and regardless of method.