On Thursday the second tranche of Arms bill was passed, against the weight of evidence at the select committee process and against sensible public policy.
The law passed is decidedly unsatisfactory. Not only will it fail to save a single life, but it has appalling implications for privacy.
It seems the only benefit of the bill is that we will see the Police removed from administering the Act.
We were never going to get back the use of semi-automatic firearms, even for competitions. Frankly, that is on the gun lobby. They were intransigent for years on meaningful reform. I warned many in the industry that we were only a massacre away from a gun ban. And so it played out exactly as I predicted.
For me, the loss of AR-15 platform rifles is no loss; I simply have not ever needed them and I do a fair amount of pest control myself. Just last week two of us took out a whole mob of 12 goats just with bolt action rifles in less than two minutes. The argument that they are needed for pest control just doesn’t wash for me.
That said, there were many in the firearms community, like me, who saw NZ First as being the bulwark against a gun-grabbing Labour/Green bloc.
Sadly, that proved to be ill-founded, despite many hours by interested parties trying to get meaningful and sensible amendments put through that would make the law changes more palatable.
To put it bluntly NZ First and in particular Ron Mark, let down shooters badly. So badly that I’m afraid to say that NZ First cannot and should not be trusted to protect the interests of shooters.
There are 250,000 licensed firearm owners who now have no idea who to vote for. If you are a shooter and vote on shooters rights alone then it is clear that Labour, Greens and NZ First are barren ground for shooters.
National is no better, and frankly, their voting down of Jami-Lee Ross’s SOP regarding mental health was out of pure spite. They also voted for the first tranche. They came to the second bill with dirty hands.
So, who do we vote for as shooters?
The way I see it we have three choices.
1. Vote for Act, they have been steadfast in protecting shooters rights and David Seymour was the lone vote against the first tranche. He has not wavered in his resolve and should be rewarded with several new MPs as a result of increased support from shooters.
2. Vote New Conservative. They have been very vocal, but are currently out of parliament, and this may help them get there, but the threshold is their enemy and I’m just not sure that even with shooters’ support they can get there. I know several well-connected shooters who have dabbled with New Conservatives but they have left in disgust.
3. Vote for Jami-Lee Ross’ Advance New Zealand party. He has already got enough members to register as a party, he has a reasonable chance in Botany as the National party support slides away, and he too voted against the second tranche.
To my mind, a vote for either Act or a vote for Advance NZ works quite nicely. Both parties currently have an MP so have a better chance of being elected and making all votes cast for them count. Having two parties supporting shooters in parliament makes more sense than just one.
For NZ First, they have just handed a significant chance for a large bloc of votes over to those parties who actually deserve their support. NZ First no longer deserve the support of shooters. Quite simply they’ve crapped on shooters while dying in a ditch for Federated Farmers. Ron Mark was lazy, ill-prepared and ignored sensible SOPs that were drafted for him. He is no more a friend of shooters than the Police are.
As a shooter I now find it very hard to support NZ First on that issue. It remains to be seen if other issues sway me away from likely backing the Act party.
Ron Mark may well have handed the balance of power to Act which means that National may well be able to ignore NZ First totally. He may well have ensured a Labour/Green government at the election. Bottom lines won’t cut it anymore, shooters simply don’t believe them any longer.
If NZ First is bundled out of parliament for the want of a few thousand votes then Winston Peters will have only the uselessness of Ron Mark to blame, and his legacy will end in ignominy rather than with any lasting achievements.
The words I’d use to describe Ron Mark and NZ First’s betrayal of shooters cannot be written here. To say that I’m disappointed is an understatement.