Media release
The Council of Licensed Firearm Owners (COLFO) has today called for Anzac Day services with ceremonial gun salutes to be exempt from new firearm event fees proposed by Police.
Last year Police proposed new fees for events where firearms are used, including charges for Police inspections and attendance at the events.
In December, the Returned and Services Association (RSA) said the new fees meant Anzac Day events would be charged $8,000 by Police to license such activities. They said community-organised events like Anzac services would not be able to afford the new cost, and gun salutes would no longer be a part of the commemorations.
The $8,000 fee is to obtain a ‘permit to carry’ from Police for each firearm used by the firing party, at a proposed cost of $1,020.
COLFO spokesperson Hugh Devereux-Mack says military memorials and remembrance activities traditionally involve a firing party.
“These fees will stop gun salutes, a tradition that has been a part of our Anzac Day services for generations.
“Of course, now these firing parties only fire blanks, and take safety very seriously.”
“The Police want to charge community events an immoral cost to properly remember our fallen soldiers.
“Theatrical armourers volunteer their time and donate firearms to these events to honour those who served.
“The firing party is part of the Anzac culture and a poignant moment in memorial services. How can you possibly put a price on that?”
The consultation on the proposed fees has now closed, but Police are yet to announce whether the fees for commemorative activities like Anzac Day will stay or go.
Devereux-Mack says all memorial services like Anzac Day should be exempt from the proposed fees, as they are public events.
“These fees will affect all events involving firearms, from military re-enactments like airshows, to filming on Hollywood movie sets.
“The least the Police can do is exempt memorial services like Anzac Day from the fees.
“At $8,000 a pop, I’m sure the Police will make enough money off other events to allow Anzac Day and other memorial services to remember New Zealand’s military history properly.”
“Without an exemption the new fees proposed by Police will cripple Anzac services as we know them.”
Footnote: For further information contact COLFO spokesperson: Hugh Devereux-Mack. 027 362 0853
I am beginning to think the police hierarchy have gone completely insane. What else can explain their proposing such a monstrously stupid idea as charging a fee for commemorating our fallen soldiers? Shame on them, they are not fit for purpose.
More foolish and prejudicial government regulations to impose penalties on people who have not and will not do anythong wrong.
They are a waste of time and money by people who pretend to be solving problems that do not really exist.
Firearms are neither good nor bad.
Most owners own and use them safely and responsibly and are not responsible for the anti-social behaviour of anyone that does not.
Discrimination and prejudice against responsible licensed owners and users of firearms has not and will not stop violent people from harming or killing their victims.
Ordinary, sane citizens to not worry about being shot by a responsible and properly licensed person or the participants in Anzac Day ceremonies, in spite of all the prejudicial and irrational propaganda they are exposed to.
We do not employ police to assume that we are guilty of crimes we have not commited and prey on innocent citizens who are accused of being responsible for something they did not do or cause to happen.
One horrible person named Tarrant commited a dispicable crime and he alone is guilty of this causing a national tragedy.
Most of us are compassionate human being who suffered a period of collective grief as a consequence of what he did to so many helpless and defenseless innocent people. What happenned to those poor people in their Mosque could have happenned to any of us.
Some people with political influence, authority and power took advantage of our grief to impose their ideology, agendas, prejudices and agendas on the rest of us.
Blaming innocent people for the cruelty and inhumanity of one person was never rational, fair or reasonable and would not have been accepted if so many of us were not upset, grieving, confused and not thinking logically because of what had happenned.
We were shocked and disbelieving that such a horrible and unlikely mass murder could ever happen in New Zealand.
We were grieving for the innocent people who had been injured and killed, their friends and families and our loss of confidence in our social order, humanity and trust in our justice system.
The people who imposed the confiscation of property (not a buy-back) on law abiding and innocent people knowingly and selfishly took advantage of our shock, confusion and grief to impose their agendas on us while we were traumatized and are continuing to do so.
Unjustly judging, Vilifying and discriminating against everyone that has firearms for the consequances of what one person who should never been allowed to legally have firearms should never have been allowed.
Potential improvements to the administration of the licensing system ought to have been more rationmally and carefully considered after the shock, horror, grief and communal trauma had been processed but that was not allowed to occur.
The decisions of the Royal Commission defintely exonerated all properly licensed firearms owners from any responsibility for Tarrant’s crime and concluded that the process of granting a license had not been properly administered in his case.
We are all inclined to blame others for Tarrant’s crime but should not because no-one would have ever believed that such a tragedy could occur in our small nation of mostly decent people.
We were confident and complacent because the administration of a fair and reasonable licensing system had been so successful in preventing gun related crimes by properly assessed and licensed citizens.
We trusted the competence and ability of our police men and women to identify and help protect is from being harmed by violent criminals who do not abide by laws and regulations.
We trusted the people in our justice system to effectively deal with people that were a threat to our safety and property.
We trusted the people we elect to serve us in our government to administer theoir responsibilities for our mutual benefit.
Tarrant’s heinous crime destoyed much of our confidence and trust and encouraged people to accept prejudicial legislation that discriminates against a large community of responsible law abiding citizens who had nothing to do with it.
Hasty, illogical, prejudiced and discriminatory legislation against responsible and law abiding citizens never turns out well and causes more problems than it was proposed to solve.
It will be no different this time and everyone ought to be concerned and disagree with what is being imposed on us because when the rights or “privileges” of one community of people are disrespected and violated those of others will be as well.
I have a friend who is a theatrical armourer who has collected a range of military side arms, field guns, and uniforms for hire to the movie industry. A gifted mechanical engineer he is capable of fabricating/modifying breech assemblies to make RSA war trophies capable of firing blanks. A few years ago he showed me a WW I field gun with Ottoman markings that he had restored to blanks only use. He had taken this to his local Anzac Day dawn service and fired blank rounds as part of the service (unpaid).
The Turkish gun seemed especially poignant given its connection to the Anzac forces that had captured it.
I was impressed with his attention to safety in both limiting the restoration of historical weapons to a realistic but non-usable condition and his security.
The personal props were locked as securely as if they fully functional weapons.
This guy cannot afford to continue with his RSA charity or his business supplying movie props thanks to the hastily written new gun laws. Once valued military history has become so much scrap metal. It is hard to envisage criminals towing field pieces that have been made non functional around to commit crimes.
As a qualified armourer licensed to work on civilian firearms, he is no longer able to test his work or sight in the guns he is employed to repair.
To my mind the only crime here is the brainless legislation.
When has there ever been someone shot at an ANZAC Day commemoration. The blokes using these weapons will have been well trained in the use of them. A lot of madness going on in this country at the moment.