Myles Chandler
Sensible Shooters
Firearms owners were the canary in the coal mine warning of the tyranny of the Ardern Labour Government.
Following the tragedy of the mosque shootings, sensible shooters throughout New Zealand were targeted by the Labour Government who convinced the public that firearms kill people. This was the spark that lit an anti-gun ideological fuse of legislation rammed through parliament, ignoring both the firearms owners’ rights and the select committee feedback.
The firearms owners of New Zealand were the ones that were continually warning the apathetic population that these draconian moves of the Ardern government would come back and haunt them.
In a tactic that was subsequently replayed over the Covid debacle, sensible shooters and their sport were vilified and demonised by Chris Cahill of the police union and the MSM. In another move that was to be copied to fuel the Covid debacle, the Ardern Government even funded anti-gun lobby groups, which were given column inches by the MSM to further give the public the impression that these hateful firearms kill people.
The persecution, vilification and demonisation of what is and remains the most vetted, law-abiding group of New Zealanders was astonishing, but it had a purpose: control. Gun buy backs were never about getting these bad guns “off the street” or making New Zealand safer. It was about the control by left-wing ideologues.
This aspect of left-wing control was repeated again with Covid. All of the Covid rules and regulations reek of the foul smell of government control.
Consider the phrase ”guns off the street”. Often repeated by the then Police Minister Nash, “Off the street” was a nonsense as was the claim the buy back would make New Zealand safer.
How many violent firearms crimes were committed by licensed firearms owners? A microscopic percentage. Most violent firearms crime is gang-related.
How many guns were handed in by the gangs or other criminals? None, that would be zero. In fact, the gangs even got media column inches saying they would NEVER hand in any guns.
ALL of the guns in the buy back were from the locked and police-inspected safes and strongrooms of the most law-abiding New Zealanders.
And are we safer because of the buy back? The firearms crime statistics have soared to unacceptable heights in the period after the buy backs and are a huge police embarrassment. This is a testament to the fact that the police commissioner and politicians lied to the public of New Zealand. The buy back did nothing at all to reduce firearms crime.
This safety argument for change was of course closely mirrored in the Covid debacle but, as is becoming apparent to all but the dimmest lights, the rules around lockdowns, traffic lights, masks, social distancing and contact tracing are proving useless in stopping Omicron. They are in fact control measures.
So the canaries were the sensible shooters of New Zealand. They sang the warning, just as real canaries protected miners. But in contrast to the miners, no one listened to firearms owners.
Covid came and the formula used against firearms owners was repeated: fear, vilification and demonisation of dissenters, more fear, then undemocratic legislation, then more fear, then lockdowns and more rules that were nonsensical and reeked of the stench of government control.
Thankfully we are all protesting our way out of the tangled web of the Covid debacle. Firearms owners nationwide have their hearts and support with the Freedom Movement.
The next step of the ideological battle by the left against citizens owning guns is happening now: Registration. Firearms owners need your support to stop the not so independent firearms authority from imposing more unworkable rules in the name of safety.
Remember, the media will lie to you to stoke the fear so the Ardern Government can further reduce the rights of firearms owners, while still allowing the wet bus ticket approach to gang-related firearms violence.
