Opinion by Sporting Shooters Association of New Zealand Inc.
Confusing the misuse of firearms held by licensed firearm owners with misuse by those holding firearms unlawfully is a common error – an error routinely made around the world by agencies when they attempt to reduce firearm crime. Simplistic solutions for controlling firearms can’t work when it is human misusers holding them when they misuse or commit crimes: a far harder problem to address.
Identifying solutions to these problems seems to be beyond the vision (and parliamentary careers) of most politicians.
Just as we do not say that the 350 annual fatalities on our roads are a problem with cars, so we should not say that the violence perpetrated with firearms is a problem with guns. It is recognised that the road toll is largely down to driver behaviour, and so it is with guns. It is the criminal who pulls the trigger who is the problem, not the gun.
As revealed almost daily in our news stories, it is criminals who unlawfully possess guns that are behind the violence perpetrated in our communities. In New Zealand this is largely represented by gangs. Licensed firearm owners are not the problem: they are law abiding, because that is their nature and to be otherwise risks the loss of their licence and their guns.
As Chaz Forsyth, president of the Sporting Shooters Association of NZ, says, “Many academic studies have pointed to the unlawful holders of firearms being the real problem. It is shameful that the government allows such attacks on a law-abiding minority group such as licensed firearm owners.”
It is is so simple – “Guns don’;t kill people, people kill people.” Don’t politicians understand? Well to help them understand, statistics of homicides (murders) show firearms are in a low minority as to weapon. Knives for example, are much higher.
Politics is all about managing perceptions.
The trappings of office are a necessary means to manage the perception the politicians are capable of being in charge.
It’s easier to have a go at legal firearms owners than it is the unlawful ones.
Perhaps there is a different motivation for politicians and bureaucrats to want to prohibit citizens from owning firearms?
Politics is really just about who will have authority and power over the rest of the people.
The political parties are controlled by a small minority of the people because most ordinary people are not ambitious for authority and power over others and do not participate in the political system.
The members of this politically elite minority believe that centralization of authority and power in the government is the only way to have social order and economic prosperity because the common people are not capable of self-regulating and managing themselves.
These elites think that making the masses more dependent upon and obedient to the government (by them) is “for the common good”.
Basically they regard themselves as the PARENTS of the rest of the “childish” people.
The people in this “parental” government feel entitled to take the money that working people earn by productive labour and spend it as they choose and also to impose and administer more and more regulations to make us behave as they think we should.
They use the procedes of out productive work to “reward us” when we are obedient and “punish us” when we “misbehave”.
Elections are competitions between the elites in the major political parties in which voters are promised that they will be rewarded for their votes and protected from people and other things that they fear and do not like.
Most of the people have accepted this “parental” model of government without understanding that it is really detrimental to their social and economic wellbeing because the elite minority always become corrupted by the authority and power they gain.
When the ordinary citizens are regarded as CHILDREN, they need to be prevented from having guns or other things that could be dangerous to themselves or others.
The right to own and use firearms to provide for and protect oneself becomes a privilege that is granted or taken away by the the “parents” and then the privilge is denied by making the process of getting permission more compicated, difficult and expensive.
Armed citizens are also perceived as a treat to the authority and power of the elites that control our political parties and government.
People with guns could rebel, take the power from the elites and restore it to the people so they must be disarmed.
Criminals will not obey the rules and regulations imposed by the politically elite.
They are willing to risk the consequences of disobedience and have learned how to avoid these consequences.
Criminals also understand that the system does not have the resources, ability and competence to effectively adminsiter all the restrictive rules and regulations it imposes on the people.
Criminals will not and cannot be disarmed or prevented from commiting crimes against the law abiding people.
They will not comply with licensing regulation that identify them as owners of firearms or a registration system that identifies what they have so that their property can be confiscated and the political elites know this very well.
This draconian legislation and the propaganda used to justify it is intended to fool the people into believeing that they will be protected from armed criminals but it will not because criminals will not comply.
The result will be the opposite.
Responsible and law abiding people that comply will be deprived of their property and the ability to provide for and defend themselves because the system is designed to criminalize them and deny them permission to have firearms.
Those people who rebel against the unfair and unresonable restrictions, bureaucracy and expense will retain their firearms and be CRIMINALIZED for not complying and this will only increase the potential for misuse and harm to people and their property.
People who are opposed to these restriction and the removal of the “privilege” of owning and responsibly using firearms can and should become more politically aware and active and try to prevent the political celebrities of the major political parties from being elected in October.
Joining, supporting and promoting the election of representatives of the smaller political parties is a real threat to the continuing authority and power of the elite members and funders of the major parties that want to take away our privacy, liberty, property and even the ownership of our own bodies.
Supporting or voting for the Labour, National or Green parties and their candidates is voting for an authoritarian and corrupted government that will confiscate our personal property an take away our remaining natural rights.