Shoot club regulations changed sans consultation
The Labour Party and gun-control advocates say the Government has failed to be transparent or follow democratic process, after changing regulations for shooting clubs under the Arms Act without consultation.
The regulations were amended in June, and reduce how much information clubs must put in their annual reports to the Firearms Safety Authority, including ending the requirement to provide financial reports of selling firearms and ammunition. The changes were made through Order in Council with no consultation, which the government said was to “relieve pressure” on clubs.
Labour said the move was far from “normal procedure”. “It's really concerning that these changes are being made in the shadows,” police spokesperson Ginny Anderson saod.
A spokesperson for Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee said there was “no clear public safety rationale” for the regulations to stay in place, and Order in Council was used to “relieve pressure” on the volunteers who largely ran clubs.
Gun Control NZ said it was “unusual”. “I am worried the minister is proceeding in quite an anti-democratic way. She [McKee] wants to use her position of power now to bring in changes and go back mostly to what things were like before the Christchurch mosque attacks,” Gun Control NZ co-founder Philippa Yasbek said.
The Khadija Leadership Network, a community group focused on Islamic issue, said it was a worrying move ahead of the rewrite of the Arms Act, the final part of McKee’s planned reform of gun laws.
“It should concern everyone in Aotearoa,” Khadija Leadership Network founder Tayyaba Khan said. “We need to make sure that we have got a government that is open and transparent and following the rules and following our legislation.”