special report
On Facebook, Hunting/Fishing Minister and National MP James Meager has received a backlash of comments about the National Party’s support for a firearm registry and in doing so, the snub to ACT’s MP Nicole McKee who is Minister for Courts and Associate Minister of Justice (Firearms) and wanted “a more thorough and independent review.”
Comments made to James Meager’s facebook article were typified by ones such as:- “you’re on the wrong side of licensed firearm owners.” to references to next year’s election such as “very disappointed but not even surprised that National are not listening to their voter base. Maybe you’ll understand that in 2026.
In his facebook article James Meager attempted to placate by saying “putting my Hunting and Fishing portfolio hat on this evening, this is a long post ahead with some complex detail. I know not everyone will agree and that’s ok. But just know that we totally support the rights of legitimate firearms users to hunt, collect, undertake pest control and enjoy the recreational shooting that they’ve been doing for decades. Where there are changes we can make to do this more easily and maintain public safety, we will do so.”
“The review of the firearms registry was completed late last year. Cabinet agreed a set of terms of reference and that it would be led by the Ministry of Justice – with the responsible Minister being Act Minister Nicole McKee who by the way is an exceptional Minister, a strong advocate for sensible firearms law reform and someone who I get along well with.”
“The review of the registry was completed late last year and it supported the continuation of the registry, as well as its continued implementation.”
James Meager “register needs to be robust”
James Meager said National’s aim was for the register to be robust and work well with the wish to dedicate time, energy and resources into a rewrite of the Arms Act to modernise it and make it easier for New Zealanders to take up hunting. Earlier this term government made it easier for pistol and non-pistol shooting clubs to operate and currently are speeding up the process for getting your firearms licence.
Referring to criminal use of firearms, James Meager said government was putting focus on criminals and gangs and making it harder for them to get access to firearms.
“They wreck havoc on our communities, and if the process of registering and tracing a firearm makes it even slightly harder for them to get their hands on a gun, we think it is worth continuing. It’s a complex area and we won’t always agree, but we think the balance here is ok.”
Some comments on the minister’s facebook post have been as follows:
Jeremy Pickford:- When you know a register doesn’t work and costs a shit load to implement and maintain why the bloody hell are you persisting with it?Multiple countries have tried and failed. I suppose the govt is going to donate some $ to all the gangs to help them register thier legal guns. National need to listen to Nicole McKee MP, she has more knowledge in this area than your party combined.
Alex Lambert: I’m not angry, just disappointed.
Craig Snook:– I, like many other LFOs am deeply worried about the security of all that information about us that will be collected. Sadly history has shown us that data stored by our governments and their agencies are far from secure. As a sports shooter I’m pretty sure criminal elements couldn’t give a damn about what i have. But i know collectors and others with interesting items are shitting themselves. And I don’t blame them.
Tony Orman:-James, you need to ponder on this one., Canada spent $2 billion or so on a firearms registry and then faced with utter failure, gave it up. All it does is provide a register of the law-abiding licensed firearm owners. Surely someone among National MPs can see the waste of public money (instead spend it on health!) and can speak up for commonsense? Or is that MPs have to toe the line and agree with the tight five or so? Does democracy rule within caucus? You should be targeting the unlicensed, illegal users of firearms. How about for ANY offence involving a firearm, there’s a 10 year imprisonment, before the motive (e.g. robbery, murder etc) is considered?
Dave Stanton:–All of the good compliant gun holders have registered their guns – From now on they will pay the heavy annual cost of gun control levied per gun.The real problem is the gangs, tribes and criminals none of whom have so much as registered a gun as they don’t want it used in evidence against them to secure a conviction.
Predictably Jame’s Meager’s National MP colleague Susie Redmayne MP for Rangitikei said :- “Excellent explanation and summary. Thank you Minister James Meager MP”
Andrew Johnson:– very disappointed but not even surprised that National are not listening to their voter base.
Maybe you’ll understand that in 2026.
Footnote:– Facebook link to make a comment is https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1EDi4D6SX4/
The Canadian “long-gun” registry, a system aimed at tracking firearms, was widely considered a failure and was abolished in 2011. Reasons were its high cost, failure to stem firearm violence and difficulties in accurately tracking firearms.
Yes, in Canada’s case, violent crime and suicide rates remained virtually unchanged despite the high costs of annual budgets during the first several years of the firearms registry. It’s estimated it ciost CDN$2 billion cost and with the firearms registry remaining strongly incomplete and with an error rate leaving eggs all over the faces of those who advocated and launched it, it was abandoned.
So National wants to foist a multi-billion dollar cost on the taxpayer for a proven failure?
How dumb can you be? Doesn’t National see the health system, once you get rid of some fat bureaucrats, needs those billions of dollars.
Let’s have more common-sense MPs like Nicole McKee.
Even Canada’s PM Justin Trudeau said in 2012 the “long-gun registry” was “a failure”
This registry is not about public safety it is to align with the WEF agenda of disarming the public. Registration is free for the time being but once a licenced firearm owners guns are registered it will suddenly be found necessary to introduce an annual tax on each gun to pay for the upkeep of the system. LFOs are not stupid, they can see this will happen and the number of guns that will go unregistered onto the black market and thus become more available to criminals will increase enormously.
I can imagine that this move will cost the National Party a lot of votes at the election. Questions needs to be asked about the motives of Luxon and his cabinet who appointed one of New Zealand’s foremost experts in firearms law, what works and what doesn’t, to do the job of reviewing our Arms Act and the expensive and futile registry and then ignore and override what she has to say on the matter.