Arms Act Rewrite Public Consultation Closes in 9 Days.

Hugh from Ngaio

Arms Act Rewrite Public Consultation Closes in 9 Days. You have until midnight of Friday 28 FEBRUARY to make your submission.
COLFO – Myths, Half Truths and Lies
COLFO claims to represents 250,000 registered firearms owners in NZ. *Nicole McKee **Hugh Devereux –Mack ***to which Michael Laws on THE PLATFORM replies, “Oh! So you are a really BIG organisation!”

This is a false statement. The Firearms Safety Authority (FSA) website, Firearms Data and Public Information Dashboard (updated monthly) for January 2025 shows there are only 230,559 individual firearms licence holders, not 250,000 as claimed by COLFO/McKee/ACT
COLFO is a self-appointed gun lobby organisation, not voted in by referendum, or appointed by the general public, or Government
It would be false and pretentious of any organisation to say they represent ALL gun owners of New Zealand, given that gun owners are a widely diverse group, with differing views, morals and beliefs. Many, or most, are politically inactive or neutral in terms of “Pro” or “Anti-gun”, and take no part in the political circus
In the same way it would be false for ACT to claim that they represent ALL New Zealanders, when only 8% voted for ACT in the 2023 General Election, it is also false for COLFO to claim they represent ALL firearms owners
If you took gun owners as a general cross section of NZ society, you could say that only 8% of gun owners support COLFO, approximately 18,440 people. The same percentage that support ACT
Estimatig COLFO membership, based on the membership of club associated with COLFO, would place COLFO membership between 30,000 to 45,000 assuming ALL individual club members support COLFO unanimously. Which of course they don’t. Note, some individuals have membership in multiple clubs and organisations ie Indoor small-bore shooting plus deerstalking, so these numbers are probably on the high side
COLFO is a very small, but very loud organisation and not representative of the wider firearms community
COLFO models itself on the National Rifle Association of America, the very organisation that prevented Barack Obama from implementing meaningful gun reform laws. The NRA gave Donald Trump a standing ovation when he attended their national conference. This organisation quotes the Second Amendment, Right to Bare Arms, as if it was still relevant to society today? As well as the right to use firearms for self defence
If you are fairly relaxed about New Zealand following the National Rifle Association of America’s lead, and if you are relaxed about COLFO re-introducing semi-automatic, military styled assault weapons you will choose to follow COLFO. If you, “Don’t want to be an American idiot!” You won’t!