It was the typical media frenzy and I switched off from day two .. but I don’t live in the area.

Thanks Corey, I defer to your greater (than mine) knowledge of military ordnance.
BTW: There was an earlier radio report of shots being fired “from the hill” and in the context, it sounded to me like the person was suggesting they were fired down onto Molenaar’s redoubt.
I’d love to know if anyone’s actually able to do some sort of reliable count.

While I didn’t follow the media coverage of the Napier siege to the same extent, or with such a critical eye, it was quite clear from my perspective that the quality of journalism was mixed, at best. I wish I could say I was surprised. I second Raven’s comments above, my impression is that stricter gun laws would have made little to no difference in this case.
In regards to Ethical Martini’s comments above: Of course I can’t be sure, but I believe the “two cannon shots” from the LAV he witnessed on Cambo were in fact discharges of the NZLAV’s grenade launcher – presumably smoke or distraction grenades, or less likely shots from a smaller mounted machine gun. The 25mm cannon on the LAV would have made quite a mess and posed quite a danger to surrounding houses.
I’ll leave it at that, for fear of devolving into one of the many (often frighteningly irrational) armchair tactical experts that reared their unwelcome heads throughout this unfortunate episode.

thanks Lew, something to think about. I like to leave some critical distance before writing a considered response, but I concur with your conclusions.
A couple of points:
One the commenters over at EM said that the local media was not quick to provide useful information about where evacuated folk could bed down for the night, etc.
Also, the police “two shots only” claim. I haven’t gone back to do a count yet, but I saw at least two canon shots from the LAV at 5pm on the last day (via Cambo [more dead than a]Live) and some small arms fire.
But the media swallows the official version and already this morning MR is saying that the cororner’s report is “expected” to find Molenaar died “by his own hand”.
What about letting the coroner make that call first.

The gun legislation issue was an interesting one. It didn’t take long for anti-gun lobbyists to come out. My thoughts are that he wasn’t licensed, his guns were illegal so what real difference will tightening our gun laws make in a case like this?
As I usually do with crime and the media I thought the whole thing was a bit OTT.