They Don't Want You to Have a Place to Train

 Touching on yesterday's post, Tom Knighton at Bearing Arms has an article entitled What New Zealand's Anti-Gun Crowd Can Teach Us About Ours. To catch up those who have not been paying attention - and why would you with the wheels coming off here at home - a little history is in order. New Zealand had a gun culture, with modest gun control requirements up until the Christchurch massacre in 2019. The gun-grabbers used that event to convince the legislature to impose horrendous gun control on the whole country. People were required to turn in their guns. Many did. One of the features of New Zealand gun control featured massive regulation of gun clubs. This is where the story now picks up.

New Zealand used to have somewhat OK gun control laws, at least compared to other nations outside of the US. You could have about the same kinds of guns we could and if you had to jump through a few more hoops, it was still possible to get them and use them.

Then the Christchurch massacre happened and all that went out the window.

That left a lot of casualties in its wake. Not Christchurch, mind you, though that did as well. No, the reaction to Christchurch.

One of those was gun clubs, which suddenly were vilified and found themselves under attack. Now, though, some are working to repeal at least some of those restrictive measures. In the process, anti-gunners there are really tipping their hands in ways they probably don't intend to.

In the article at Stuff, which seems to include all sides, gun clubs are complaining that the regulatory burden goes beyond what is needed for public safety and if relief is not given, they will have to close. After all, they point out, the problem was never the legal owners of guns, and especially their members. As here, the 99.9999% pay for the crimes of the 0.0001%. It is like being back in school, when someone throws a spitball at the teacher. The teacher turns around, and because she can't find the one who did it, punishes the entire class with detention. Only this time, they did capture and convict those who committed the crime. Nontheless, they are imposing the sentence on everyone anyway.

The government seems willing to at least consider loosening regulations on rifle clubs, while retaining tight regulation on pistol clubs. But it is the gun-grabbers who spout nonsense for why no gun club should receive any consideration:

Gun Control NZ co-founder Phillipa Yasbek said the problems they had heard about gun clubs, such as noise issues, environmental impacts, and lead pollution, were not addressed by regulation.

There was no obligation for gun clubs to look out for potential extremists or to report them, she said.

“So I don’t think the regulation was necessarily doing a huge amount, except for the ballistic safety stuff,” she said. “Some of [the clubs] have liquor licences.”

Yasbek acknowledged that ranges provided an important place for people to sight their firearms, where hunters could learn to aim their weapons accurately.

While it was better for those skills to be honed at a range, some ranges were little better than a riverbed because they concentrated lead in the area, and became contaminated, she said.

Knighton has some harsh words for Yasbeck though:

Noise issues? Folks are moving into homes next to gun ranges and are then shocked to find out they can hear gunshots? That's on them.

Lead pollution? It takes a whole lot of lead to go downrange before it becomes an actual issue. After all, lead is a naturally occurring substance and tends to occur at much higher levels than you'll find at a gun range.

I don't know what else they're calling environmental issues, but the truth of the matter is pretty damn clear. They just don't want you to have a place to shoot at all.

Therein lies the tie-in with yesterday's post. Kurt Schlichter isn't just telling us to buy guns and ammo. Without proper training on the use of the weapons and the laws concerning the us of those weapons, they are just talismans. The one who buys them and leaves them in the safe is hoping they are somehow magical. Training with the weapons is the point, indeed has always been the point of the Second Amendment.