TONY ORMAN
Strong support has come for ACT MP Nicole Mckee who in the August 2022 issue of “Top South Farming” said proposed government reforms will jeopardise firearm safety training by rifle and gun clubs.
Laurie Collins of Westport, spokesman for the Sporting Hunters Outdoors Trust organisation said the reforms were misdirected and were bypassing gangs and criminals.
“While government and police are target law-abiding citizens who belong to these clubs, it’s by-passing gangs and criminals who are the problem,” he said. “Rifle range and gun clubs are where young people learn to respect firearms and their safe use”.
Laurie Collins said he was not criticising the police in total.
“It’s not the police on the beat - invariably great officers - but the police bureaucrats and policy makers dreaming up these policies.”
Criticism of the reforms also came from Barbara Kuriger MP For Taranaki-King Country and National Spokesperson for Agriculture, Biosecurity & Food Safety.
When public submissions on the Bill closed on public submissions for the Government’s proposed new Arms Regulations — specifically aimed at gun clubs and shooting ranges — she was non-plussed.
“I shook my head in disbelief and amazement. The proposals are a targeted attack on legitimate individuals and groups within our society,” she said.
The new proposals are among the second set of gun law changes Labour is intent on bringing in, as its response to 2019’s attack by a lone shooter, on two Christchurch mosques.
“The amendments, despite this guise, have a much wider reach. They will instead, prevent or make it harder for law-abiding citizens to use firearms in a controlled environment like a shooting range.”
Firearms users go to these places to learn and/or enjoy the sport of target, rifle or pistol shooting. Experts are available to teach people how to use firearms safely, allow people to use firearms without the need to own one or a gun safe and assist them in obtaining a firearms licence. They also assist parents by providing a stricter hand in instructing their children.
The proposals will threaten the very existence of clubs and ranges with added layers of red tape said Barbara Kuriger.
“Despite the removal of 10,000 guns via the gun buyback scheme — almost all from licensed honest citizens — there has been no reduction in firearm-related offences. In fact, quite the opposite.”
The Government is not focused on what we believe is the sole objective — to get firearms out of the hands of those who intend to use them to do harm. That should be the aim of any firearms legislation.
“Bringing in huge cost and complexity for them is not how you solve the rapidly rising use of guns by gangs and criminals. Nor does it provide greater public safety. Instead allow firearms prohibition orders giving police warrantless search powers to go after these illegal users with illicit firearms. Now that’s a far better idea,” said Barbara Kuriger.
