Lethally Blind
The autocratic behaviour of Nicole McKee, former gun lobbyist and now Associate Minister of Justice (Firearms).
Brenton Tarrant murdered 51 people and injured 59 others in Christchurch on March 15th 2019. He was able to do so because he was legally permitted to own a military style automatic weapon.
A month later, Labour and National combined to pass legislation that banned these weapons and brought in stricter gun control measures.The only MP to vote against the law changes was ACT’s David Seymour.
Eight years later, as Prime Minister Luxon formed his Coalition government, he appointed ACT’s Nicole McKee, a former gun lobbyist, as Associate Minister of Justice with special responsibility for reviewing and reforming our un ownership laws.
She has set about this task by undertaking what she calls “targeted consultation” which means that only selected public groups have been invited to give their feedback. Mostly these are gun groups and in a consultation process that is far from transparent she has chosen not to invite the Police Association, the union representing sworn officers, to be involved in her formative discussions.
Which is why the union's president, Chris Cahill, wrote a letter to the Prime Minister last week, expressing a lack of confidence in the Minister’s integrity and independence and calling on him to sack her.
Before becoming an MP and Associate Minister for Justice , Mc Kee was the spokesperson for the Council of Licenced Firearms Owners. She is also the owner of a gun consultancy firm and played a leading role in convincing the previous National Government to keep gun regulations loose. Back in 2016 she lobbied then Police Minister Paula Bennett to reject 12 recommendations made about gun law reform by Parliament’s Law and Order select committee and one of the rejected recommendations was about tightening the law on semi-automatics.
When the Ardern Government brought in much tighter gun controls, including a new firearms register and a ban on military-style semi-automatic guns, McKee, who was then the spokesperson for the Council of Licensed Firearms Owners, immediately railed against the new rules. Indeed it was her strong advocacy on behalf of rural gun owners that led Act Party leader David Seymour to recruit her to stand for Parliament. Two months before the 2020 election she became third on the party’s list. In her maiden speech, she thanked the Council of Licenced Firearms Owners, who honoured her with a Korowai clock to wear for the ceremony.
Ardern’s 2019 gun law reforms involved regulating shooting clubs and gun ranges, which until then were subject to virtually no rules. Under Part Six of the Arms Act, such clubs now had to meet certain obligations, including reporting on any sales of firearms and ammunition.
Earlier this year, McKee announced that she wanted to reduce “compliance costs and paperwork” for such clubs. Then, in June she enacted these changes to gun club regulations, pushing through an “Order in Council” change to the rules, bypassing Parliament, and avoiding consultation with the public.
So much for democracy!
McKee has said the Police Association has said The Police Association and the general public will get the chance to have their say when her Bill comes before parliament.
I ,for one, will be raging against any “reforms” that want to do away with the gun register or reintroduce the “right” to own a semi-automatic weapon.
When the time comes I hope you will remember the victims of the Christchurch massacre (pictured) and make your voice of protest heard.
Not all rights are created equal and the right to life ranks far higher than the right to secretly own a lethal weapon.
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Getting on in age now, I've lived through the reign of more than a few various NZ Governments. Thought I'd seen everything, that is until this current Coalition Govt. who thrive on rushing major changes through with little or mostly no consultation, with no accountability. All Govt. Depts affected, the Ministers always claim to have consulted certain select groups or people, but never name them. It's so easy to invent fantasy, or non-existent folk or groups if you can't name such.
That said, back to today's subject... and reading through it, I percieve a HUGE conflict of interest(s) in the Ministerships that McKee holds... I have never understood any need for the general NZ population to have any access to semi-auto, or automatic weapons. Military aside, there is no place for them in NZ... simple ! !
To be a part of a Gun Club shooting at a target using any untold amount of shells at one time is NOT target shooting.
Nor is, when it comes to hunting, is riddling an animal with up to 50 shots (or more) classed as any form of Hunting. Anyone can down an animal using that technique, but it's not hunting !
As a younger person, I was a Hunter. Finding an animal was the 1st challenge. Downing such with one shot was the next challenge, and if that 1st shot missed, you might be lucky enough to get a second shot in. Hunting as such came with challenges, and there'd be no sense of achievement in downing an animal using any form of a "machine-gun".
I ask anyone to give me due justification as to why the general NZ public needs to, or should have access to Military-type weapons.
Guns are made for one purpose only, and that is to kill. Semi-auto and Automatics are made to do that exact same thing, only faster and over a wider area, My bit said.
Extremely disappointing that Gun City in NZ hasn’t been shut down. Absolutely no reason to have automatic weapons available in nz.