Hello Todd and Brett,

I have been a National voter all my adult life. I am also a licensed firearms owner.  You are currently going to lose my vote (along with that of my partner, also an LFO). First, National under Simon Bridges threw their weight behind the firearms law changes of 2019 which saw me having to hand over legally acquired property for destruction, even though I had done nothing wrong.

Your party has continued to be a part of the demonisation of LFOs. I had been willing to give the party another chance once you, Todd, took over. But among your failures so far, I have to say that your inaction on yesterday’s breaking news was the most disappointing. We have been saying since last March that the Police were at fault in their failure to properly administer existing firearms law. Law which was internationally recognised as being some of the best around. However, we were dismissed as “trolls”, “gun nuts” and “conspiracy theorists”.  Now the truth has finally been confirmed, and you are still silent.  Complicit, some might say.

If you want to have any hope of winning this year’s election, it is time to grow a pair, and do the job of the opposition: hold the government to account. To date, the opposition appears to be one lone man, David Seymour. Please, for the sake of our country, do your jobs. To help you out, COLFO have kindly prepared some questions for you to ask in Parliament.

  1. Did Police really fail to follow the proper vetting process and issue Tarrant a firearms licence based on interviews with just two people he had met on an internet chat room?
  2. Why were resources meant for vetting LFOs diverted to other areas of policing?
  3. Why aren’t the Police fronting on this?
  4. Why has it taken more than a year for this to become public?
  5. When did the Minister of Police, Stuart Nash, learn about this? What about the Prime Minister – did she make all her statements about the need to take firearms away from people knowing it was her own Police force that let this happen?
  6. Why did the Chair of the Select Committee shut down two submitters when they raised these matters? Was she part of the cover-up?
  7. Are these matters before the Royal Commission of Inquiry? Why isn’t the Government waiting for the results of that before rushing through the next round of legislation drafted by the Police?
  8. Can the Police be trusted to manage firearms policy when they can’t be trusted to front up to their mistakes?
  9. Will the Police Minister take responsibility and resign for overseeing an agency whose mistake contributed to the death of 51 people?
  10. Why were taxpayers forced to cough up $102 million for firearms confiscation compensation on the basis that the old system was broken, when it was the Police’s failure to follow procedure that led to Tarrant getting firearms?
  11. Were other Cabinet Ministers and the Government’s support parties in on this cover-up?
  12. Did NZ First know about this when they voted for laws to distract attention from the Police’s incompetence?

If you can’t or won’t fight for our rights, we will turn to another party which already is. And in case you think I’m being hyperbolic, let me state that I work in the gun industry, I have conversations daily with other LFOs, and you are haemorrhaging votes. Overwhelmingly, the firearms community (along with all those of us who still hold to conservative values like freedom of speech, personal responsibility, democracy and equal treatment under the law) are turning to ACT to secure our future.

This is your last chance to keep my vote and, I suspect, those of many others. I await not only your reply, but evidence that you have the balls to fight for us.

Sincerely,

A. Constituent

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