The Finance and Expenditure Select Committee is currently hearing oral submissions on the governments second round of firearms law changes, and so far some 95% of the submissions have been against the bill. Such opposition is completely understandable given that the bill cranks up restrictions and punishments on those who try to comply with the law and makes no attempt to disincentivise criminals who use arms.

One of the submitters, Paul, from Aoraki Ammunition Company. Paul presented a Police Mail Order Form to the camera, one that authorized the transfer of 2,320 rounds of ammunition to Brenton Tarrant. Before Paul could get into much detail the Select Committee halted his submission and cut off the live-stream. Apparently you can’t give any details that show police incompetence when the product of that incompetence is still working it’s way through the court system.

Paul was trying to show that because the expiry of Mr Tarrant’s firearms licence was Sep 2027 and given that it was a 10 year licence, the licence was issued in Sep 2017. Paul then started to point out that it was only a matter of 5 weeks between Tarrant arriving in NZ with no friends or family, and having been vetted by the NZ Police as being fit and proper to hold a firearms licence. The chair of the committee shut down the livestream shortly after objections were heard from off-camera.

This is a seriously valid point that has been raised before, yet there seems little appetite among NZ politicians to suspect that the Christchurch attacks were allowed to happen due to Police failings – it is far better for the agenda of gun control to simply assume that all firearms licence holders in NZ are deranged lunatics like Tarrant in order to justify nationwide bans, seizures, and raids.

• AR-15 rifle parts allegedly used in Christchurch mosque attacks ruled illegal by police
• David Seymour Speech on Second Tranche of Gun Laws
• Firearms Prohibition Order proposal raises fears of warrantless search powers
• Government considers National's bid to give police 'greater powers' over gun control

Right after the attack, former head of firearms control Joe Green raised serious questions about Police, yet the government has continued to enact tyranny on the good people of New Zealand in the name of “safety”.

The TLDR; of the situation is:

• Tarrant obtained a firearms licence within 5 weeks of arriving in NZ with no friends or family in the country.
• Police then signed off on Tarrant ordering 2,320 rounds of ammunition.
• His licence application was made in Waikato when he live in Dunedin, in a bid to increase his chances of obtaining a licence.
• His personal referees required as part of vetting appear to be people who knew him online and not in person.
• Tarrant declined to be interviewed by the vetting officer at his home, instead he was interviewed at work.
• There is doubt if a security check of his home was even conducted.
• Concerns about Tarrant were reportedly raised with Police prior to the attacks and not followed up.

There is no official word, but the lapses that allowed Tarrant to do what he did look to fall not upon the shoulders of the firearms community in NZ, but squarely at the feet of Police. It is doubtful though that the Government and Police will take any notice – they are too busy vilifying the firearms community in the hope that people don’t see the trail of blood that leads to their own front door.