So, here we are, more than a month on from the most horrific terror attack New Zealand has ever seen.
The alleged perpetrator has not even had his day in court yet and the inquiry into how he managed to hide among us and be given the privilege of a firearms licence has barely even begun.
Yet, the Government has already delivered the answer even though it doesn’t quite seem sure what the question was.
We could go on about how unjust it is that the hard-earned privileges of the fit and proper seem to depend not on our own conduct but on those whose only goal is to watch the world burn.
But the real tragedy of the whole law change process is the way the Government and media boiled the entire debate down to a series of false dichotomies: An illusion of binary choices that are either black or white. You’re either with us or against us. You must either support the law change or oppose it. The gun owners versus the public. People’s lives versus your sport. You’re not the victims, they are.
This divide-and-conquer rhetoric does more harm than good. The reality is that none of these seemingly black and white choices needs to exist. You can support the general intent of a law change but also think some parts of it have missed the mark. You can accept gun control is necessary but also accept fit and proper people can participate in well-controlled sport shooting.
You can be anti-firearm ownership and still be disgusted at the despotic manner in which democracy was all but dispensed with. You can support initiatives to stop undesirables getting hold of guns but also demand taxpayer money and police resources are not wasted on schemes unlikely to achieve anything. You can have concern for public safety but also believe firearm ownership can be managed in a way that minimises risk to the community. You can be heartbroken for the victims of a terror attack but also feel disillusioned at how your Government has treated you. You can also recognise your own shooting-related activities are not necessarily the yard stick against which the legitimacy of all others must be measured. Just saying …
The most gut-wrenching dichotomy being perpetrated is the idea firearms owners are somehow separate to the community. Apparently, we are not part of society but an evil gun lobby who should be neither trusted nor listened to. NZ does not have a gun lobby that pours money into supporting political candidates to protect the gun industry. There is no big gun industry in NZ like big tobacco or big oil. What we are is a collection of interested private individuals who choose to participate in the democratic process as is our right as NZ citizens. That’s kind of the point of living in a democracy, a point worryingly lost on the Government.
Our message to the rest of NZ is this. It is not you versus us. We are not some weird fringe group. We are your friends, your family, your neighbours and your colleagues.
We are the farmers who grow your food, the doctors who care for you when you’re sick, the teachers who teach your kids, the police officers who keep you safe, the builders who made your house, the military personnel who serve our country, the IT guys who created your website, the students who will lead the nation tomorrow and the retirees who want to keep their minds and bodies active even though their rugby days are long since passed. We have families, jobs, homes and pets. You see us every day.
We don’t want bad people getting hold of guns any more than you do. We are not a threat to you.
We also happen to know a bit about guns. Soon the Arms Act amendment that was so perfect and so necessary and so urgent that no time could be made for debate will be up for review. Even though the media and Jacinda Ardern’s PR team would have you believe it was the most well-written piece of legislation in the world, soon they will be screaming that it’s full of loopholes that need to be fixed and it will be the evil gun lobby’s fault. We will yet again be cast as the enemy who must be controlled with swift legal action to fix the problems we tried to point out in the first place.
That is what happens when shooters, hunters, dealers and even the police arms officers are excluded from the legislative process. When those with no knowledge on the topic try to create laws without the input of those who have even the foggiest of ideas of what they are talking about, the results are predictably terrible. Bad ideas do not become good ideas because of the strength of the emotional drive behind them. Conversely, if an idea is good then robust debate and scrutiny will confirm its validity, not compromise it.
The Government should not be afraid to consult the shooting community and involve us in the process from start to finish. It is the only way it will achieve buy-in among the shooting community and getting buy-in is the only way to build a system that works. In turn, a robust system is what gives people the confidence that firearms licence holders are not a threat to their safety because, let’s face it, the licence holders didn’t let a terrorist slip through the cracks.
Meaningful consultation will go a long way towards restoring trust and mutual respect between shooters and police that has steadily and systematically been destroyed over the last few years. Besides, between the Government, police, licence holders and the rest of the population, aren’t we were all supposed to be on the same team?
