Yep, it’s a serious time, especially for those of us who hold a firearms licence or believe in people having a fair go.
While we now have a new Firearms Act, the opposition parties haven’t stopped talking about how much they dislike various parts of it. They seem determined that the police should have full control of the new organisation, Firearms Safety and Education New Zealand (FSE). I strongly disagree with that approach.
My concern is that the police have a mindset and training focused on dealing with criminals—the 2–5% of the population who break the law— not honest people who are simply trying to navigate the rules and do the right thing. Both Labour and the Greens have made comments about putting the police back into the mix.
I believe this election will be particularly important for firearms owners and others who value personal responsibility and individual choice.
I still don’t agree with the way Labour changed how firearms licences are viewed. When we apply for a licence, we are now effectively being told that it is a privilege rather than a right. The problem I have with that thinking is that if the government decides it doesn’t like us or what we stand for, it has greater power to take that privilege away.
To me, if I have done nothing wrong and have not committed serious offences, why should I be denied a firearms licence? We in New Zealand have stood by while too many of our rights and freedoms have been restricted or taken away simply because someone else has decided they know better than we do.
Personal choice has been slowly chipped away.
Look at smoking. Huge taxes have been placed on cigarettes because governments have decided that smoking is bad for us. I personally don’t smoke, so it doesn’t affect me, but I question the principle of using such high taxes to discourage adults from making their own choices.
It’s a bit like golf. Personally, I think a golf course is a waste of a perfectly good shooting range, but I haven’t tried to close all the golf clubs down. If you want to walk around hitting a little ball and then spend time looking for the damn thing, that’s your choice—not mine.
That’s the point: let people make their own choices where they are not harming others.
Let’s get back to treating people as adults, not as children who are incapable of making decisions for themselves.
And when it comes to firearms, I believe we should restore the principle that responsible, law-abiding people have a right to own firearms.
For me ACT gets my Party vote, the stronger they are the better than help us.
