The Following email attached shows National letting its loyal followers know that fire arms were going to be the 2020 electoral issue.

Er okay that a bit odd.

Couple of things I note;

1. Police basically denied their was an issue with fire arms. That is until 2015 when Greg O’Connor, the longest serving president of the Police Association announced it was an issue shortly before announcing he was joining the Labour Party and would be running for public office under a Labour ticket. O’Connor has also led the charge from this point to arm police officers. A move which the current Police Association has to its credit largely resisted

The move to centralise into a brand new Arms Act Service Delivery Group comes as similar moves unfold in the Fire Service in the form of FRENZ a FEMA style Civil Defence emergency management group.

The Arms Act Service Delivery Group; is headed by Mike Mcllaith a career police officer who is also army holds a masters in “strategic studies” (Victoria University) and a graduate diploma in emergency management.

The group formed one month before the North-land shooting in 2017 when the Mercedes loving Quinn Patterson gunned down Wendy Campbell and her daughter Natanya​ in rural Northland tragedy a cross-party law and order Select Committee put forward 20 recommendations which focused on reducing the access of firearms for criminals and gangs. 

Michael John Hayes, of Maunu near Whangarei, a former solider, appeared in the Whangarei District Court on Tuesday charged with supplying unlicensed Quinn Patterson with a Mossberg 12 gauge shotgun, two charges of supplying Gevarm .22 calibre rifles, two charges of supplying military style semi-automatics with 30-round magazines, two charges of supplying military style semi-automatics with 10-round magazines, and two charges of supplying rifles with pistol grips and 100 round magazines. Hayes even allowed Patterson access to his firearms licence number so he could bid for guns on Trade Me. He says the deal was Patterson would pay – but Hayes ultimately filled out the police paperwork, collected and kept the guns. And no one checked to see if the person buying the guns was who they said they were.

It came about after Police Minister Paula Bennett consulted with “independent” firearms experts unnamed and accepted seven recommendation but rejected 12 saying they would not decrease flow of weapons.

The independent arms expert turns out to Paul Clark, the head of the largest pro-firearm lobby group, who asked to meet with Bennett. The relationship at this time between the police and firearms owners had “deteriorated”, wrote Clark, to the point “where the gun lobby was going to take legal action against the police”. At this time, Bennett was the Police Minister and the National Party deputy leader.

A court case as Jarrod Savage the herald noted “would force the issue into the political area ‘where it belongs’, noted a press release attached to Clark’s email”. Clark continued “As a member of the National Party Hutt Cabinet Club [a fundraiser], I find this conflict between police and firearms owners detrimental to the overall good of NZ society,” He warned “And being realistic [it] will not improve National’s position in the forthcoming election. There are approximately about 242,000 licensed firearms owners in New Zealand, the vast majority of voting age”.

Bennett decided to reject policies which would be unpopular with law abiding voters and instead accepted that Gang members and their prospects would not be “legally”allowed to own guns. Which of course over looks that over 60 guns found in gang hands were not legally owned and came from one person who brought and adapted them after spending $50,000 at one store Gun City owned by the controversial David Tipple.

No one has done any studies to determine where the arms in gang hands do come from – begging the question what is the point of making law changes if we don’t first address the question where exactly are these weapons actually come from?, How are criminals accessing these weapons .

Bennet also stopped short of implementing a number of recommendations from a select committee inquiry into the illegal possession of firearms, including ones that sought to regulate the possession of ammunition. Police would not be given the power to enter premises to check the security of highest calibre weapons, and licensees who failed to comply with storage regulations would not face mandatory revocation of their gun licence. 

Bennet said at the time “although the report was well intended, I believe many of the recommendations would not decrease the flow of firearms to criminals and gangs but would unduly impact on legally licensed firearms users.” The timing of this newly formed group, on the back of the committee, is certainly curious. And it hard to fathom how this group will do a better job at managing gun storage and detecting threat’s at a central level when

A) Its failed abysmally when the system was local and supposedly over seen by officers who knew their neighborhood.

B) It actually rejects the parts that do make sense.

i) better check of license holders storage and security

ii) a willingness to punish those who don’t secure their weapons properly.

iii) acknowledgement ammunition needs regulation as well. 

It probably will be an election issue as sadly issues like 1080, water privatization, proposed mining ambitions, and the corporate neo-liberalism behind the UN 17 steps sustainability plan, the global compact and national sovereignty, China & Five Eyes fight over New Zealand, the impact of the TPPA ratification, the debate over new taxes alleviating poverty or simply a part of the new tax regime forced on government by the IMF & World Bank, get side lined or sucked in by the emotional maelstrom gun control that the Christchurch Mosque has ignited.

THE EMAIL From: Chris Bishop <chris.bishop@national.org.nz> Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2019, 5:07 PM Subject: Firearms Changes To: Noah Appleton <knowapples@gmail.com> Hi *** –I’m emailing because I thought you may be interested in learning about the major shake-up the Police have just proposed for firearms administration in New Zealand. The Police are planning a huge shake-up to the existing system, with hundreds of arms officers and firearms licensing vettors set to lose their jobs. The Police are proposing:All firearms activity and personnel will be managed by, and report to the Arms Act Service Delivery Group;That firearms administration tasks will be moved away from districts and towards central management;To establish a new national Service Centre, based in Kapiti, to manage end-to-end firearms administration; and Disestablishing hundreds of field-based arms officer and firearms licensing vettors; replacing them with a far fewer number of new positions at lower pay-scales. I’ve received a lot of feedback from people already, and the general view is that there are huge risks in what the Police are proposing.  There will be a massive loss of institutional expertise through the disestablishment of arms officers and licensing vetting officers. To make matters worse, only six weeks has been allowed for consultation which is a pitiful amount of time given the large changes proposed. This proposal has come totally out of the blue and has shocked many people. Read the Police Consultation document here I’d be interested in your thoughts. You can email me on chris.bishop@national.org.nzor simply reply to this email. FIREARMS FORUMS I’m also emailing to let you know about the National Party’s Firearms Forums for 2019 which are part of our policy development process for the 2020 Election.  Our leader Simon Bridges is determined that National, unlike Labour in 2017, will go into the 2020 election with a comprehensive plan for New Zealand’s future. Our Firearms Forums are about listening to you and helping shape our policies for the future. They’re very timely too, with this latest Police proposal, constant talk about a national firearms register, and the government’s own review of the Arms Act. …. Yours sincerely Chris Bishop National Spokesperson for Police MP for Hutt South