Frustrated at moves to tighten gun controls, firearms owners are mobilising

Saturday, 9 December 2017

With quarter of a million licensed gun owners and an estimated 1.2 million guns in New Zealand, we're nothing less than a gun-toting nation. Now, our gun lobby is demanding to be taken more seriously.

It's like the dark clouds on the horizon are rolling in.

That's how gun enthusiast Kevin Fewtrell​ describes a perceived rising anti-gun sentiment in New Zealand.

The black powder pistol shooter started with rifles and deer hunting when he was 16-years-old; four decades on he's turned to shooting what many people would consider a pirate pistol. He says shooting a gun is a right – not a privilege – but insists there's nothing American about our gun culture.  

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That said, Fewtrell speaks of a growing divide between the 250,000 New Zealanders with a gun in the bedroom closet, and those without.  'The firearms community is getting disgruntled, and now we're pushing back. We're getting organised now.'

If you ask New Zealand's gun lobby, that dark cloud has been building for some time. A combination police interference, sensationalised news stories and the gun community's arch-nemesis, Police Association president Chris Cahill, has the law-abiding shooters feeling more targeted than ever before. 

The country's firearm community is not small. There's 238,700 people with firearm licences, the vast majority males between 40 and 70 years old.

Of these quarter-million Kiwis, almost 7000 have the 'E-Cat' endorsement that allows a person to own a military-style semi-automatic, generally used for pest control and sport shooting. Nearly 4000 have the 'B-Cat' endorsement that allows a person to own a pistol, used for sport shooting.

The number of firearms, both legal and illegal, is less clear. New Zealand doesn't have a firearms registry, but at best estimate there's 1.5 million.

Fewtrell and his 50-strong crew of cap-and-ball pistol wielders are just some of a dedicated bunch, meeting every Sunday, most Saturdays and in the summer, Wednesday and Friday evenings, at the Trentham Rifle Range Reserve.

The National Rifle Association of New Zealand (NRANZ) is also based here, along with many Wellington gun clubs. The major organisations sit on the Council of Licenced Firearms Owners (COLFO), essentially spearheading New Zealand's gun lobby.

But these groups haven't been loud enough, haven't been questioning enough, Fewtrell says. And with shooters feeling like they're in the crosshairs, new voices are emerging. 

TAKING ON THE ESTABLISHMENT

Posting online, sport shooter Mike Loder​ was one of several gun-owners to vent their anger this week about media coverage of airguns. Last weekend, a Stuff reported the anger of a father-of-three at receiving a Gun City advertising brochure encouraging him to buy his children air rifles for summer.

Loder isn't new to gun lobbying, but the blog he writes for is. Kiwi Gun Blog began in February to present a counter-narrative to that found in the media and presented by the Police Association, and has lodged numerous Official Information Act requests with the police since.

'I'm furious at the way we've been treated,' he says, 'and I'm furious at the community has been let down because we're put at risk.'

Fewlett, Loder and others argued that the article failed to give gun-owners a chance to put their views. 'How is encouraging young people into a very social sport presented as a horror? ' he demanded to know. 'Thousands of kiwi enjoy airguns up to and including Olympic level. Where was their comment?'

And indeed skeet shooter Chloe Tipple, the 26-year-old daughter of Gun City owner David Tipple, represented New Zealand at the Rio Olympics last year.

So here it is: a chance for the fledgling gun lobby to explain its position.

This week, Tipple remains forthright and unrepentant: he argues that training children to use firearms responsibly is a public service. 'What is the result of someone having better knowledge of firearms? Do they turn into mass murders or do they turn into better members of society? Isn't that a better question to ask?

'In this politically correct world it's no surprise people are going to look at anything and see it impacting them personally or society negatively. 

'I'm here in Italy with my daughter who started with firearms at eight years old, and now she represents New Zealand in the Olympics with a firearm. Did I do the right thing or the wrong thing?

'The facts are we have very good legislation that results in very little crime and accidents. Why have you got a bee in your bonnet about firearms when our little kids are being beaten at a rate higher than anywhere in the world? Why are our teenagers committing suicide? Let's focus on what's broken.'

A SPORTING CHANCE

The problem isn't gun owners, Loder says; New Zealand has the best gun legislation in the world.

Loder is in a wheelchair and came to shooting as it was a social sport that he could enjoy without sitting on the sidelines.

Kiwi Gun Blog is highly active, often publishing multiple bombastic posts on themes such as police mismanagement and court sentences failing to adequately punish criminals who use guns. A given example: the one year and eight month imprisonment sentence given to a Wellington man who shot someone in the forearm and shoulder.

'Yet another betrayal from our courts,' the website reads.

Among Kiwi Gun Blog's listed followers is new Defence Minister Ron Mark – but the blog's view are firmly anti-establishment.

Through the lens of Kiwi Gun Blog, when a criminal gets hold of a gun, Police Association president Chris Cahill is there to pick up a reporter's call and overstate the threat. 

In response, Loder cites OIA information showing that of the last 100 firearms-related violent crimes, only two were recorded as involving a military-style semi-automatic. Out of all of these cases, only one offender held a firearms licence.

So the Police Associations' push to have all firearms registered feels particularly offensive. Why would criminals register illegal firearms?

The debate is already over, Loder says. New Zealand's vetting of gun owners is the right approach, and a comparatively low number of gun-related deaths proves it.

'I reflect our readers, and every shooter I meet shares these views.'

The Firearms Owners United NZ (FOUNZ), another new group with a following of 9,000 on Facebook, posts online along similar lines.

They appear hard on the heels of the new government, urging members to make email submissions to new police minister Stuart Nash.

Barrister Nicholas Taylor, who specialises in firearms law, describes a growing mistrust between the police, Police Association and the firearms community.

He says there's been an increase 'micro-management' from police in the past two years, including the redefinition of a military-style semi-automatic, differences between arms officers on which gun safes meet the law, and changes to the mail-order purchase requirements.

'They're creating these policies when really they actually should be changing the law.'

NEW GUN CONTROLS

Police remain eager to reform gun legislation. In a Friday briefing to the new minister, police commissioner Mike Bush said firearms were a 'key legislation and policy matter' that needed to be addressed.

He told Nash the previous government 'signalled its intention to deal with these issues' through two pieces of legislation: the long stagnated Arms Amendment Bill and an Arms (Firearms Prohibition Orders and Firearms Licences) Amendment Bill.

Nash said he was hearing the community's concern about inconsistent application of the Arms Act.

The long-established firearms groups largely agree with the community's emerging voices, but present a more optimistic picture.

Firearm safety consultant Nicole McKee, the secretary of COLFO, said the organisation's 40,000 members were concerned about what lay on the horizon for gun owners.

McKee was a personal advisor to former police minister Paula Bennett during 2016's inquiry into the illegal possession of firearms, after which the government rejected a recommendation to have police register firearm serial numbers when renewing licences but accepted firearm prohibition orders.

The nub of the current law is right, McKee says, and firearm registration wouldn't remove the criminal element. More follow-up on burglaries would.

COLFO and other established groups are just switching onto social media, where these newer voices are the loudest. While the more hardline might see gun ownership as a right, she calls it a privilege earned.

And where the likes of Fewtrell and Loder see a growing divide, McKee sees hope. She believes police are trying to rebuild their relationship with gun owners.

'It took years to destroy, so it will take some time to restore.'

As for the gun community's bogeyman, Police Association president Chris Cahill says some gun groups hold legitimate concerns with the management of the Arms Act that have been exacerbated in the past two years.

He stands by the Police Association's position that all firearms should be registered, and says the small minority on social media are 'blinded' by their views. 

'I've certainly learnt there's some pretty strong opinions out there in the gun community … they're not interested in any sort of debate or discussing.

'It's a legitimate concern that we should talk to gun owners more, and it might be surprising what common ground can reach at times.'

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