The Arms Amendment Bill (Shooting Clubs, Shooting Ranges, and Other Matters)
The proposed amendments contained in the Arms Amendment Bill will move things towards more balance. First thing that I thought was what a mouth full, but let’s be fair it covers a lot of ground and is very important.
The opposition hates the idea that anyone has the nerve to question the BS that they rushed through with the changes and restrictions all under the guise of public safety, which is crap because there were no safety problems on ranges in New Zealand. We have to guess they got their advice from the police, but face it what would they know about running a club and range? We believe that police misled Parliament about the vetting and licence process for the shooter and whether it was properly done, and were all about diverting blame onto the licence holders and clubs as a smokescreen for their own poor performance.
Shooting clubs are like every other club in this country, they are run and held together by volunteers. These are people who live and breathe their clubs and sport not just on the club day or when at the clubs, but are always looking into things and ways to improve their clubs and to help the membership. Firearm safety is not something we take lightly and never have on any range I have every visited be it here in New Zealand or overseas. Ranges have always been very professional. The numbers of incidents are extremely low. There have been few when compared to the numbers of ranges and volume of usage. If you compare it to most other sports then we come out ahead in terms of safety. A number of years ago I spent hours trying to find the numbers of shooting accidents and injuries from ACC, (on ranges) but couldn’t find anything. There was heaps on Rugby/League, Netball and don’t get me started on mountain biking but as for firearms there was nothing.
So how did the changes and restrictions pushed through following the Christchurch massacre make ranges safer? In short answer, they didn’t, all they did was put a lot of extra pressure on those that step forward to help. I am all for improving safety, but change for change sake is BS, and takes money away from clubs that could be used better, to say nothing of the wasted hours. The lack of understanding of our sport and how we conducted ourselves, whether it’s club days or competition, was obvious. Clubs are an asset to every community they are in, training and advice is freely given, helping everyone improve skills and knowledge,
The claims by Labour that gangs will get ammo from the clubs if the rules change, is downright offensive to every club member, and explains why they treat the licence holders so badly. We need everybody to start thinking for themselves and if you want to find out what we do, go visit a club and see for yourself, then do a submission to support the proposed amendments. We need your support as much as possible.
