OPINION
Gun ownership in New Zealand has a varied and interesting history which can be broken down into three distinct historical periods. When white folks came to New Zealand they brought lots of guns with them; Parliament enacted laws requiring licences and registration for gun ownership – which were promptly ignored by everybody for sixty years. A period of negligible crime and violence in New Zealand.
In the 1920s, probably not trusting returned servicemen to get pissed and also have guns, they enacted an updated gun law. This required registration of guns, permits, and a crackdown on handguns. And this was also ignored for the next few decades; something shown to be glaringly true when the Police audited the firearms register and found it almost entirely inaccurate. It was a time of little crime and violence in New Zealand.
In 1983 the Arms Act was introduced; the intention was to vet owners of guns rather than the guns themselves. Other measures to (ahem) ‘keep everyone safe’ were also included. Like good little unthinking slaves, the general public nodded their heads and assumed they were indeed being protected from gun crime. Which then promptly rose exponentially. A one-off tragedy in Aramoana inexplicably led to some foolishness; a newly elected government felt it was a chance to show how incredibly important they were so they enacted restrictive gun laws – to keep everyone safe. Phew!
Other one-off tragedies in other parts of the world (Port Arthur in Australia, and Dunblane, Scotland) saw some idiot judge engage in infantile hand-wringing; the Thorp Report; and subsequent legislation was enacted further restricting gun ownership in New Zealand. But now we were even safer don-cha-know! Phew!
In 2019 yet another one-off (undertaken by a foreigner against, well, other foreigners) led to Jacinda Ardern’s Christmases coming at once and she decided to protect the general public once and for all. There was a campaign to hand in guns which all sorts of weak, feeble slaves dutifully did. To keep us really safe; and I mean really, really safe, comrades! Phew! The only dissenting voice was David Seymour (taking time out from his campaign to murder babies and grannies). Needless to say, gun crime soared – to its highest in New Zealand history – but at least we’re all “safe” now (goddammit!); our weekly chocolate ration increasing from 30 g to 20 g, so to speak.
Whilst all this was taking place, all the way back to the 1983 legislation, there was one (ahem) lonely voice. One person (ahem) kept suggesting we adopt American-style gun laws whereby everyone without a felony conviction can own guns at their house, and about their person if they so wish. Something that would ‘actually’ keep people safe from gun-toting criminals. It goes without saying everyone – without exception – I’ve suggested this to has viewed such a proposal with horror; the result of a lifetime of anaesthetisation against “thinking”, and indoctrination to obey “Government” and accept that every government diktat (from speed limits to vaccinations to health and safety laws) automatically “protects” them.
And so to Sunday night and a dead body lying on the pavement of Ponsonby road.
I don’t know the victim; they never heard me calling for abolishing gun laws and allowing concealed carry; never expressed horror at such suggestions. Then there was that two seconds when their life flashed before them but they couldn’t defend themselves. A lifetime of simply relying on Jacinda Ardern and the Police to keep them “safe” failed them.