Overheard anecdote of dubious provenance

While the three year old clambered over an old privately owned tank at a classic car event a while back, I overheard the tank's owner telling another attendee about the minor paperwork hassles he faced in importing the tank.* The Defence folks had some objection to his importing the tank because, were he to go on a rampage with it, they had nothing that could stop it. The armour was too thick for .50 cal rounds to get through, and all the .50 cal rounds are stored up on the North Island anyway. So he had to sign a waiver saying he wouldn't go on a rampage or try to start a revolution.

I don't know whether the story was true;** I don't even know that it was really the tank's owner. But I love that I live in a place where it could be true. Instead of a place where the local sheriffs have tanks.

I also like that the privately-owned aircraft on display biannually at Warbirds over Wanaka could probably take out the government's Air Force if they decided that they needed to.***

Americans who claim pacifism but who live in a state that extracts large quantities of money from them to blow up people overseas or to send police tanks and bad actors after the suspected kingpin of a cockfighting ring (see link above) perhaps ought to reconsider the strength of their convictions or emigrate.

* Please don't ask me what kind of tank it was. It was green, had a big gun, had tracks, and definitely wasn't a personnel carrier. A door opened at the back where the kids climbed in to go play. I think there was a hatch on the top too.

** It can't be completely true as the army does have some anti-tank weapons. It just doesn't have any tanks.  We do have some armoured tractors. And this is as it should be. If you want to see a tank in New Zealand, go to a museum. Or, go and hire a private one and go for a drive.

*** I am definitely not denigrating the important work done by the Air Force in maritime safety and in Search & Rescue. New Zealand can't afford an Air Force that could protect us against any plausible external threat, so doesn't bother to try. We have equipment necessary for the jobs that need here to be done: search & rescue and maritime patrol. Important jobs both. But neither of which require ridiculously expensive modern fighter aircraft. The best response to a tournament game that you can't win is not to play.