Announcement today by the Prime Minister of further gun law reform is being shrouded by fear, so that scrutiny of the law is seen as an affront to the victims of the horror attack in March.

The Prime Minister acknowledged in her announcement that previous law reform has failed, citing the tragedy as justification for the second stage of reform in just less than four months.

“The focus of these reforms is yet again on law abiding citizens, and as yet there has been no focus on illegal gun owners and criminal activity using firearms,” observes New Conservative leader, Leighton Baker

Following on from the rushed legislation to confiscate firearms, New Conservative has engaged extensively with firearms owners. The process has resulted in a strain on Police resources, a large fiscal commitment, and compromise to fair democratic process.

While the Government continues to drive a change of mindset to the law abiding citizens of New Zealand, there has been no such direction to the criminals who use firearms.

“The ownership and use of firearms has long been part of recreational, farming and environment control activity for New Zealanders,” says Leighton. “It is unacceptable that this government is using a tragedy to drive changes to law that has previously been recognised as needing reform.”

Overseas experience, and past experience in New Zealand, has seen that the use of firearms registers is prohibitive and ineffective.

New Conservative has continued to recognise the need for law reform in regard to firearms use and possession, but has maintained that these changes are failing to deliver on any improvement to public safety.

“We demand that the government ensures that they properly engage and consult on this stage. unlike the process of the first reform, and focus on criminal activity rather than try to make law abiding citizens into criminals,” concludes Leighton.

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