When Politics Gets In The Pocket Of The Gun Lobby

Wednesday, 15 January 2025, 4:19 pm
Opinion: Ian Powell

Will 2025 be any different from 2024 in respect of the gun lobby’s influence over the National-ACT-NZ First coalition government’s firearms policy?

This question now has a sharper focus with the Government’s intention this year to rewrite the Arms Act 1983. This legislation is administered by the Ministry of Justice.

It is a reasonable question in light of a revealing paywalled article last year by journalist Derek Cheng published in the NZ Herald (21 September):

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/in-the-pocket-of-the-gun-lobby-firearms-minister-nicole-mckees-messages-with-gun-owners-group-revealed/LOHV3HGCQFGG7JUFTZUHQA73JM/

Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee: is she joined at the hip of gun owners?

Nicole McKee was elected as an ACT party list MP in 2020. she had founded a firearms safety business.

Of greater political significance, however, was that she had been the spokesperson for the Council of Licenced Firearms Owners (Colfo).

This role included being an outspoken critic of the gun law change by the then Labour-led coalition government following the terrorist mosque attack in Christchurch on 15 March 2018.

How close is too close

NZ Herald journalist Derek Cheng investigates influence of gun lobby on government firearms policy

After the 2023 election she became the Associate Minister of Justice responsible for firearms. Derek Cheng starts from the self-obvious premise that McKee is and remains close to the firearms owners she used to represent.

But, through the Official Information Act, he drilled down further in order to understand “how close is too close?”

Cheng reveals that while the Minister’s written communication with Colfo was kept to a minimum, there was “a steady stream of contact with her office”.

This “stream” included exchanges criticising Police Association president Chris Cahill, advance co-ordination of media releases, and inviting Colfo to fill McKee’s ministerial diary with events.

David Seymour defending Nicole McKee over gun lobby political influence (Body, NZ Herald)

There is also a sharing of frustration over the publicly expressed concerns of Cahill (a former detective inspector).

Cahill had had the temerity to accuse McKee of misleading the public by suggesting that over 6,600 firearms licence holders could possess semi-automatic firearms.

Chris Cahill complains to Prime Minister over exclusion of Police Association from consultation over firearms registry

Cahill had also complained to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon last August that the Police Association was being “deliberately excluded” from a review of the firearms registry. True to form, in an auto-dial Luxon manner defended his associate justice minister.

Increased public safety vulnerability

In her ministerial role McKee is focussing on the public safety requirements of the current gun laws.

This includes looking to ease regulations for gun clubs and shooting ranges, reviewing the firearms registry, and rewriting the Arms Act (including whether there should be greater access to military-style semi-automatic firearms the future of the registry).

Cabinet has also given McKee authority to change regulations, where legislation is not necessary, to make whatever changes she wants in pistol shooting ranges.

Bryce Edwards asks a rhetorical question

Derek Cheng’s article is a quality piece of focused investigative journalism. His theme was picked up and taken further by political commentator Dr Bryce Edwards in his Democracy Project (24 September) who asks what in reality is a rhetorical question:

Is it time for Luxon to sack firearms minister Nicole McKee? (substack.com)

Drilling further down to more questionable or sinister (venal too?)

But is there something more questionable (even sinister, possibly venal) behind the firearms owners (Colfo) that deserves further investigative journalism? The National Rifle Association (NRA) in the United States is instructive.

In its 1967 official history Americans and Their Guns, the NRA stated that it “…is not affiliated with any manufacturer of arms or ammunition or with any jobber or dealer who sells firearms and ammunition.” Very commendable but those days of nearly 60 years ago are long gone.

In 2013 over 50% of NRA funding came from membership subscriptions. By 2022 this proportion had fallen to under 40%. The second largest source of funding came from private contributions and grants.

National Rifle Association benefits US gun industry corporates

The NRA has received tens of millions of dollars from its gun industry ‘corporate partners’. Those who donate $(US)1 million or more to the NRA are inducted into its ‘Golden Ring of Freedom’.

These include Remington Outdoor Company, Smith & Wesson, Beretta USA, Springfield Armory, and Sturm, Ruger & Co.

In 2024 the market size, measured by revenue, of the Guns & Ammunition Manufacturing industry was $(US)15.8 billion.

No surprise then that, as of March 2023, the grand total of NRA monies donated to individuals in the legislature or used in efforts to elect these individuals was over $(US) 27,400,008.

This explains the scandalous indifference and insensitivity of the NRA to the perpetual mass shootings in schools and other public places in the United States.

Tightening gun control affects profit-maximisation by the gun industry and the NRA is there to ensure that this doesn’t happen. Questionable? Yes. Sinister? Yes. Venal? Absolutely.

Gun industry in New Zealand

New Zealand is not the United States. There are about 1.8 million households in New Zealand. About 15% of them have at least one gun in them.

On the one hand, New Zealanders own about 6.5 times as many guns per capita as residents of the United Kingdom and 2.5 times as many as Australians.

New Zealand is not the United States….but!

On the other hand, New Zealand’s gun market in absolute terms is much smaller than the US. It is also smaller in relative terms (Americans own about 3.5 times more gun per capita than New Zealanders do). But nevertheless there is still a market here and a profitable one at that.

Tighter firearms laws decrease the risks (and costs) of firearms deaths and injuries, particularly from mass shootings. This is the experience of studies in 10 countries, including Australia.

In Australia, there were 13 fatal mass shootings from 1979-1996. After the gun law reforms in 1996 there were none until 2018. It is estimated that 16 mass shootings have been prevented in Australia by their law changes.

In response to the terrorist attack on the Christchurch mosque in 2018, legislation was adopted the following year to tighten up our gun laws, including the setting up of a gun registry, to be consistent with countries such as Australia,

Politics and pockets

The Council of Licenced Firearms Owners is, in effect, the New Zealand version of the NRA. The second paragraph on its mission statement on its website says it all:

COLFO was set up in 1996 by a number of interested individuals and groups to combat firearms-related disinformation. COLFO takes a professional approach using sound research to dispel the inaccurate and emotive claims of self-proclaimed anti-gun “experts”.

Does Christopher Luxon want his government to be in this pocket?

It is hardly surprising therefore, notwithstanding significant differences between their two countries firearms laws, that Colfo’s public relations campaign resonates strongly with those of the questionable, sinister and venal NRA.

Tightened gun laws reduce gun industry profits. Is Colfo’s campaigning questionable? Yes. Is it sinister? Perhaps. Is it venal? Yet to be determined.

Regardless is this the pocket that the Government wants to be in or is this another rhetorical question? The answer posed in 2024 should become clear in 2025.

But perhaps the answer is already clearer given today’s latest Derek Cheng scoop in the NZ Herald:

Fibbing revealed ?

As Associate Justice Minister, Nicole McKee is seeking to further tighten the punitive ‘three strikes’ law and has been caught out reportedly as ‘fibbing’ of the extent of public support she has! Just saying!

© Scoop Media

Ian Powell

Otaihanga Second Opinion is a regular health systems blog in New Zealand.

Ian Powell is the editor of the health systems blog 'Otaihanga Second Opinion.' He is also a columnist for New Zealand Doctor, occasional columnist for the Sunday Star Times, and contributor to the Victoria University hosted Democracy Project. For over 30 years , until December 2019, he was the Executive Director of Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, the union representing senior doctors and dentists in New Zealand.

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