At the outset I have to declare a vested interest here, Heather du Plessis-Allan is my wife. But that doesn't mean I can't take a step back and have a journalistic squizz at the story she ran about how frighteningly easy it was to buy a hunting rifle online.

Cops at the pit face have been complaining to their union for yonks how many guns there are out there, something their Minister Michael Woodhouse doesn't seem to think is a problem.

But let's look at the story. The gun was couriered to an address in Auckland within a few days of it being ordered from Gun City over the Internet.

It was procured with false documents, to prove the point - how easy it is to get a gun in this country.

Criminals wanting to get their hands on one aren't likely to worry about the legality of the documentation, so the point was made and the outcry began.

Firstly from the cops who in reality should have been thankful for the expose, given fewer illegal guns out there means the safer they'll be. Instead they've decided to investigate the messenger, outlining the penalties she's now liable to if they decide to arrest her.

And the diminutive Minister Woodhouse claimed no loophole had been exposed, even though the cops moved immediately to close one, making the buyer front up to them to prove they are who say they are before getting their hands on a weapon.

The most glaringly obvious loophole was surely the fact that the gun seller didn't bother to check the documentation before calling the courier.

Everyone seems to have put their bob's worth in.

Former ACT MP and journo Deborah Coddington talked, well codswallop, saying every journalist crosses the line when they falsify a document, or lie, to get something like a gun. She argued that the next thing they'll be breaking into cars to show how easy it is to convert one.

Of course that's plain and simple rubbish. Ask the Americans how they feel about the lack of gun control in their country and the devastation that's caused.

And what about the story being done in the public interest as this one most certainly was.

And consider this. When the cops send a kid into a supermarket or a bottle shop, as they frequently do to test the underage liquor laws, who's held responsible. The supermarket of course, just as in this case, it should be the gun pedlar.

If they prosecute the messenger in this case then surely they should consider prosecuting themselves!