We Respect the Police and the Job They Do

Above is the cover of Monday’s edition of the Police magazine.

Like me, you respect the police. We respect the job they do, often putting themselves in harm’s way to protect and serve the community.

So you will no doubt share my disappointment when we learned that the Police Association is using a cover photo of a troll doll to label the gun lobby as a “Troll”.

Since the tragic events in Christchurch, I have felt deep concern that the police and government have approached gun owners with a ‘them and us’ attitude. New Zealand’s tradition of having knowledgeable, respected, and common sense arms officers, has slowly been replaced with an impersonal, bureaucratic approach, damaging the effectiveness of the fit and proper person assessment.

It is this healthy relationship which has meant a long tradition of licensed owners being the best eyes and ears for getting arms off unsafe people.

Sadly, now that trust is at risk.

In recent months police have claimed guns are “evil”, with rife police lobbying to marginalise responsible firearms owners, like you and me.

So the Police Association’s decision to mock us in public reflects very poor judgement and embarrasses its members.

On NewsHub last night, I hit back, labelling the police attempts to drive a wedge between responsible gun overs and the public ‘disgraceful’.

I also joined Ryan Bridge on MagicTalk to debate Chris Cahill from the Police Association. Listen to the debate here.

Let’s be clear. Fighting for the rights of responsible firearms owners is not about playing politics with the police. To the contrary – the reason New Zealand has had generally successful firearms regulation has been because firearms owners and the police have had a trusting good-faith relationship going back many decades. But individuals within the police are now putting that at risk, and are instead appearing to play into an American style culture war to marginalise groups like us.

At the very time, the police should be working to get firearms owners onside, they are resorting to sneering at and insulting them.

After the Newhub story aired last night, the Police leadership were forced to issue this media statement distancing themselves from the Association. Later today, our lawyers will be writing to the minister on the constitutional implications of police political activism.