The New Zealand gun lobby is gearing up to fight the government's decision to tighten the ownership regime and ban some weapons in the wake of the Christchurch mosque massacres.
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Philip Alpers runs a global database on gun policy and notes the firearms lobby in New Zealand has systematically defeated every proposal for change over the last 25 years.
"All of the delays, the obfuscation, the interminable demands for more consultations, the need for another investigation - all that has come from the gun lobby," he told Radio New Zealand on Friday.
"The fight has only just begun."
Council of Licensed Firearms Owners secretary Nicole McKee said gun owners shouldn't be punished for the crimes of a person who used military-style weapons to shoot dead 50 people and wound another 50 at the Masjid al Noor and Linwood Masjid mosques on March 15.
"We are not terrorists and should not be punished for what some nutter extremist who has come into our country has done," she said.
The NZ minority government led by Labor Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced on Thursday semi-automatic weapons and assault rifles would be banned under new legislation to be introduced to the parliament.
Ms McKee said while the CLFO agreed gun laws needed tightening it also wanted more consultation.
The CLFO will put its case to a parliamentary committee inquiry into the new bills.
But Police Minister Stuart Nash doesn't believe the organisation will be able to change the aim of the new laws.
"The opposition has come out in support of this, Federated Farmers supports it, so does Fish and Game and Hunting and Fishing - there are very few New Zealanders who think that banning semi-automatics and assault rifles is the wrong way to go."
"The Prime Minister has said this will be passed by April 11."
Police Association president Chris Cahill said the legislative process must be swift.
"There is no place in the upcoming debate for the radical gun lobby, which has made its presence felt in previous attempts to make our country safer", he said.
Ex-politician Tim Fischer, who was Australia's deputy prime minister when the country pushed through firearms law reforms in 1996, said the then-Coalition government stood firm against fierce opposition.
"We stared them down, we argued in the public square and we succeeded," he told RNZ.
Australian Associated Press
