Mike's Minute: Gun law debate ends in a whimper, not a bang

The Mike Hosking Breakfast

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1d ago 2:01

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It seemed like a thing, until it wasn’t.

Guns are like fluoride and the MSM – they get people angsty.

Out of the Christchurch mosque attack came the idea that gun law needed amending. The amending got another look when ACT came to power because they are libertarians and people with, broadly speaking, a common-sense view of the world.

The idea that the more you restrict weaponry the less likely you are to have a massacre is, of course, nonsense.

Like so many things the Ardern and Hipkins era was responsible for, real world policy for real world behaviour wasn’t one of them.

Nutters get guns. The fact Brenton Tarrant got his legally didn't change the equation, and that’s before you get to the bit that this is not a country of hot-head crazies with a long list of violent massacres.

It's true that we have a lot of guns per head of population. But that reflects our outdoors and rural lifestyles, as opposed to an American-type view of defending yourself.

Anyway, Nicole McKee, straight from the gun side of the equation, was going to have a look and from that came the expectation that some sort of major liberalisation was coming.

But it was not to be. Yesterday was more dabble than revolution.

The fact McKee and ACT have invoked the agree to disagree is either a sign of political maturity, seething anger, or possibly both.

If you listened to Mark Mitchell around the Police's role and the Firearm Safety Authority, National were never budging.

There is some stuff there about 3D printing, which makes sense. But overall, it puts this whole exercise into the category of a review, not an overhaul.

I personally never thought a loosening of access to these so-called "mass weapons" was a major, but I get a lot of people would have.

In a way it’s a good example of the disconnect between the country and city. The city would be aghast because the city doesn’t use guns or get it.

Most gun owners are regular people, burdened by the irregular thinking of the Arderns, who wouldn't know one end of a gun from the other.

McKee was from the other side of the argument but ultimately lost.

So carry on then. The angst was wasted. Nothing to see here.

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Mike's Minute: Gun law debate ends in a whimper, not a bang

The Mike Hosking Breakfast

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published 1d ago