June 16, 2021 

After what has been described as a knee jerk reaction to the March 2019 massacre, it is now clear New Zealand’s legal gun owners were not and are not the problem. It is social media that the authorities should be focused on.

That is according to the president of Sporting Shooters, Neville Dodd. He says the blame has been placed at the feet of those who llawfully own guns for perfectly legitimate reasons. 

“The Christchurch Counter Terrorism Hui has just concluded that the risk of terrorism attacks in New Zealand has nothing to do with local law-abiding people, it is all about extremists who are inspired by, or influenced by, social media.

”In the meantime, those who own guns for recreational purposes, and to put meat on their family tables have had to cope with all the consequences of the panic reaction by a Government who in their desperate haste to find a whipping horse punished the wrong people.”

He says nobody seems prepared to admit that the convicted perpetrator was wrongly issued with a license to own a firearm by police, instead Parliament and the media turned on law-abiding New Zealanders who simply enjoy their sport and are no threat to anyone.

“We have university students feeding themselves and their flat mates by shooting pest animals, Commonwealth and even Olympic sports people using guns for their competitions and many other harmless sporting uses of firearms. Police now need to shift their focus to social media which feeds the problem and let lawful Kiwi firearms owners get on with the life we love.”

He says he hopes the recent firearms law changes will be reversed by a future Government as the hastily amended legislation as it currently stands is voluminous, irrational, convoluted and impossible for the average law-abiding firearms owner to understand.

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