Unbelievable – Labour squander any good will over gun law changes with enormous Police State over reach

Jesus wept this Government’s incompetence is extraordinary.

Doing sweet bugger all for the poorest amongst us, doing nothing meaningful on climate change (promising to do something in 31 years is NOT meaningful) and defining ‘transformational’ as ‘what ever Winston let’s me do’ is bad enough, but squandering any good will over gun law changes with an enormous goose step towards a Police State really is the icing on top of a shit cake.

I don’t like guns.

I don’t use guns.

I think we should have extremely strict gun laws.

I have agreed with everything Jacinda has argued right up until this enormous goose step towards a Police State…

Firearms Prohibition Orders: Wide police powers to take guns from dangerous people

Wide police powers are being considered to prevent dangerous people from having firearms, being in a home that has firearms, or being in the company of people with firearms.

Those powers might also enable police to search a certain property and confiscate firearms without a warrant.

Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) would give police such powers, and Police Minister Stuart Nash has today released a discussion document seeking public feedback.

Nash and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern outlined the proposal during the post-Cabinet press conference today.

FPOs would be issued for high-risk people with a history of violent offending, gun crimes or family harm.

This would include not only gang members, but also people with extremist views or a history of abuse – though a conviction would be a minimum prequisite.

Key issues include human rights concerns including freedom of movement, freedom of association, the presumption of innocence and the right to be free from unreasonable search.

“FPOs would prevent people from being around others who have firearms, using them without supervision, or being at a location that enables access to guns,” Nash said.

That would mean someone under an FPO could commit a criminal offence by living in or visiting the home of a family member who legally has firearms at the home, or being in a car with hunting mates who have firearms in the vehicle, or being in the company of a friend who is legally carrying a firearm.

Police would be able to investigate someone subject to an FPO, including searching their property and confiscating firearms, parts and ammunition.

Asked if people with convictions for violent offences had fewer rights than those who did not, Ardern said it was a privilege to be able to come into contact with firearms and dangerous people should be deprived of that privilege.

…as someone who has just finished a 5 year battle with the bloody cops and their abuse of power, this joke of a policy idea gives so much power to the Police to make decisions that stop people from visiting their own family and has such loop holes in it you could plot a white supremacist atrocity in 2 years and drive on through it.

I doubt the Labour Party has the imagination for an idea as draconian as this so will assume it’s been cooked up by the cops.

This isn’t about protecting the public from guns, this is about gaining new means to explore anyone associated with guns.

The NZ Police currently gain an enormous amount of search and surveillance powers from the prohibition of cannabis, with cannabis possibly about to be made legal, the cops need a new drift net to go on fishing expeditions.

Why the Christ burn up all your political capital with police powers like this?

The real question mark over the Christchurch atrocity is how the hell did our intelligence apparatus manage to miss the white supremacist plotting it? Why should we grant police extraordinary powers like this because the SIS, GCSB, Police Intelligence Unit and half a dozen other acronyms missed the actual threat because they were too focused on Muslims, MANA, the Greens, Greenpeace, Nicky Hager, Jon Stephenson and Māori protesting big oil?

Unbelievable.

All this will do is guarantee ACT gain 3 MPs at the election.