The brutal bashing of Clive constable Alan Daly has seen a renewal of calls by the Police Association to arm frontline officers.
The debate, however, needs to be about what kind of society New Zealanders desire to live in.
Some will argue we have already arrived at a dangerous place - criminals
are armed and the police need to be armed to counter this reality.
That is the view of the Police Association. Its president, Greg O'Connor, says the attack on Mr Daly, a well known and much respected Hawke's Bay policeman, strengthens the case for frontline officers to carry guns.
Nine police officers have been shot in the past two years - two fatally - and the number of serious attacks on police has almost doubled from 216 in 1999 to 412 last year.
Would Mr Daly have been any safer had he been carrying a weapon? Possibly, if he had drawn his gun when he first encountered his attackers.
But what if he had not drawn a weapon for any reason? He may still have been attacked and his gun used against him. As it was, he was reportedly hit from behind and then bashed with his own police radio in an assault one can scarcely believe occurred on the quiet streets of Clive.
Police Minister Judith Collins believes the attack on Mr Daly illustrates that if police were armed, there is a danger their guns could be taken from them and used against them.
Her preference is to introduce harsher penalties for such attacks on police.
The concern that accompanies the notion of police carrying guns is that we risk seriously escalating the "arms race" between police and criminals.
Already, some frontline patrol cars carry weapons and police have access to Tasers.
Further arming of police would be an unfortunate admission that New Zealand society truly has sunk to a new low.
We hope we have not quite reached that level.
