The coronial inquiry into the March 15 terror attack is now likely to highlight the inadequacy of the firearms legislation that was rushed through by Government afterwards, says the Council of Licensed Firearm Owners (COLFO).
The coronial inquiry into the Christchurch Mosque attacks has announced that it will review whether the firearms licensing process followed by police in issuing the gunman Brenton Tarrant’s firearms licence can be causally connected to the attack. It will consequently evaluate whether the Arms Act amendments of 2020 sufficiently addressed those inefficiencies.
Brenton Tarrant – Australian gunman and terrorit who was granted a firearm licence by police
COLFO says the result will become part of the judgement of history against the Labour Government’s immediate legislative response to the attack.
It believes the Coroner’s answer will be that it is causally connected to the attack because issuing the firearm licence gave the man access to guns he was not fit and proper to hold, and that none of the subsequent law changes addressed the reasons why Police made that error of process and judgement.
COLFO spokesperson Hugh Devereux-Mack says the Royal Commission’s inquiry already proved that the Arms Legislation Act 2020 would not have made a difference to the events.
“COLFO said at the time that the proposed firearms register, harsher dealer and storage rules, would not have altered the outcome of March 15. Dealers, storage and a record of firearms had nothing to do with the shooting. This was implicit in the Royal Commission’s inquiry, which identified Police failure in sufficiently vetting the Christchurch Terrorist during his license application, incorrectly deeming him to be fit and proper.”
Despite the Inquiry results, the Government elected to pass more unrelated laws for the Police to enforce on licensed firearm owners.
“The firearms law changes hustled through by Government only make it harder for hobbyists, pest controllers and farmers to go about their lives and business,” he says. “We look forward to the coronial inquiry recognising that the changes to the Arms Act would not have affected the outcome of March 15 and are therefore unjustified and should be reviewed.”
For further information contact: Hugh Devereux-Mack. 027 362 0853
Hugh Devereux-Mack (COLFO)
Well said Colfo and Hugh Devereux-Mack. The police made a mistake that resulted in a tragedy and the loss of human lives. It’s well pst time they were held to account. That goes for the Prime Minster too, who incompetently rushed law through in a most undemocratic manner which then ironically penalised law abiding people and not criminals and gangs.
Well done Colfo and Hugh Devereux-Mack. Is common sense starting to prevail, I hope so. How could a law be pushed through about a gunman who used air guns and that several others were involved? If you watched the film he took it is very clear what happened and it is clear it was a put-up job.
A disaster for lawful shooters just like everything in this Ardern dictatorship term, dismantling freedom & democracy. Leading us into the apartheid of New Zeababwestanolov.
It was bad enough confiscating and destroying perfectly good and servicable modern sporting rifles (what the disgusting Ardern government and their lap dog police enforcers chose to call “assault weapons”) but what really caused me distress was the large number of historically valuable firearms, simply irreplaceable, that were destroyed by the mindless vandals for no good reason other than to punish their blameless owners for mistakes the police made. Now we are expected to trust the overworked and under resourced police to administer further pointless regulations on clubs and ranges and a registration system similar to the one the Canadian government wasted $2 billion on before abandoning it as worthless and unworkable. No thank you very much, New Zealand simply cannot afford such stupidity.
Cynical short term opportunism by politicians and anti-gun lobbyists rather than a legacy to a national tragedy.
Greater balance and effectiveness would have come from waiting until the facts were known and those who safely use and responsibly own firearms were consulted.
This Government is building a reputation for knee jerk legislation passed in haste that fails to deliver stated goals in the longer term.
Lack of understanding, lack of consultation, and a lack of follow through with resources to implement masses of legislative tinkering is a hallmark of this two term government.
Evidence power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
It seems we live in a State that lacks sufficient checks and balances to govern both competently and equitably.
Power has become too centralized for our indirect democracy to work.
Erebus, Cave Creek, Havelock North, Pike River, and now the Christchurch mosque shootings all show a pattern where culpable government agencies are exonerated while the long suffering (and innocent) public pay.
Truth is the first casualty when those in charge stuff up.
If a foreign power wants to make sure that a future target country like New Zealand is disarmed all they have to do is send in a Tarrant. The New Zealand government will do job of further disarming it’s own population – easy.
New Zealand is unique on the planet .. virtually all of the quarry pursued by Recreational Hunters (who make up over two-thirds of Firearms Licence Holders) are introduced species.
Some of the rushed Firearms Law Reforms really do *need* to change.
Legitimate and law-abiding Firearms Licence Holders are hamstrung by some of the changes .. in ways that won’t make one brass razoo of difference, to those of serious nefarious intent.
And it must be obvious to all New Zealanders by now .. Firearms Law Reforms are not making New Zealand any safer.
Criminals don’t comply with laws .. and in the face of Firearms Law Reforms, the use of firearms by criminals has only gotten worse. Of course, criminals are not silly .. and gangs have cached as many now-prohibited firearms as they will need, for the foreseeable future.
More so than in any other country on the planet .. legitimate and law-abiding Firearms Licence Holders in New Zealand play a vital role in wild, introduced species population management.
This is of critical importance .. for the protection of our indigenous biodiversity, and our productive agricultural capacity.
Without their efforts .. which result in the harvesting of 150-200,000 big game animals (deer, tahr, pigs and chamois) .. and literally millions of smaller critters (goats, wallabies, rabbits, hares, possums, ducks, geese , feral cats mustelids, etc) wild, introduced species would quickly multiply.
As it is, taxpayers and ratepayers are paying many tens of millions of dollars on increased efforts to reduce numbers of tahr, wallaby, deer, etc.
We have a “standing army” of volunteers, ready and willing to undertake much of this population management work, at their own expense. All they need is the tools for the job .. (and access to be able to do it).
Yes Steve–my childhood antique 1953 Winchester pump action .22 had to be butchered & rendered worthless, because the mag held 15 shots.Hardly a terrorist weapon of choice. I’ve seen all the news clips from middle East rioting & not seen one used by the marauding thugs.But nodoubt our home growngang thugs could put it to use.OOps! no they can’t, you need a F.L. to buy ammo! ha ha!!!
I can’t wait for the inquiry report to be made public & finally tell the truth to all New Zealanders. It will be another nail in the coffin for the current government who hopefully won’t be in power next term. The Taxpayers Union are also onto their money wasting & other poor decisions.
Ideology, helped along by a healthy dose of moral outrage,, completely overwhelms pragmatism to the extent that tried-and-failed legislative changes are introduced. I look forward to seeing an economic justification for these measures, seeing as public money is being squandered in futile efforts to control crime and criminals, both aspects not noted for their law-abiding characteristics.
And, when travelling to a range or hunting area, how many keys do you need now to comply with the law and keep your firearms under control? At least three by my reckoning!
What really happenned was that the prejudiced “woke” minority of influential members of the main political parties seized and exploited a tragedy as an excuse to discriminate against law abiding citizens and confiscate their private property.
There was no responsible investigation of the incident or consultation with effected people to identify and address the issues related to the incident.
There was only a selfish desire, by the omnipotent moral busybodies in our main po0litical parties, to exploit the public grief and dismay to blame and punish “those horrible gun people” and disarm them.
The problem with our government is that the rest of the people have allowed a small minority of active political party members to take control of choosing who is chosen to represent them and be voted for in elections or appointed by them as “list MPs”.
The solution is for more ordinary Kiwis to join these parties, attend meetings, oppose the undemocratic agendas, select better representatives and take the political power away from this peculiar minority.
Unless more and more of us become active participants in the political process (instead of just voting for the representatives of a prejudiced minority) our liberty, privacy, independence and personal property rights will be completely lost.
The people of NZ have no CONSTITUTION to protect their “rights” from being taken by the politically influential minority of people who have control of the National and Labour parties.
What we think of as “rights” are just “privileges” that can be revoked at any time by those in the current government who are serving the small minority of active and influential political party members and financial “donors” who chose and control them.
Those who wish to restore democracy, liberty, equality, privacy, independence and the protection of their human rights and personal property need to urgently
Join a political party.
Become involved.
Attend meetings.
Encourage others to do the same.
Speak up.
Oppose the policies and agendas of the oppressive minority.
Choose suitable candidates to represent ordinary people.
The alternative is to be increasingly and totally RULED and ABUSED by a minority of prejudiced busybodies who feel entitled to power over everyone else.