The State of the Forum

[wanneroo]

From my viewpoint this was a 9/11 like event for New Zealand. Having known hundreds of Kiwis over 20 years, lived with them, worked with them and more, I have always detected an element of a psyche that we are far away from the world's problems and above it. Some of that almost bordering on smugness about it. So for some foreign terrorist to come into a place like Christchurch and do what he did drives a bulldozer through that safe world psyche. And then on top of it, the government turned full totalitarian almost immediately and began attacking the citizens with attacks on the freedom of speech, gun ownership and property rights.

So people cope in a lot of different ways. Some are going to be angry, some sad, some vocal, some not, some in denial, some woken up, some don't care at all. In any case it's going to take a while to work all that out and lots of people are under stress right now with an inconsistent government, a heavy handed government in some cases and the financial loss for many that have money tied up in firearms.

Going forward it's just going to be a fact that politics will be entwined with firearms. I had to realize that myself that if I did not stand up and start petitioning my representatives and stay involved while working with other gun owners and organizations that gradually over time totalitarians are going to do what totalitarians do and continue to take and take. A lot of people in New Zealand are facing that reality that they can sit and do nothing and watch all shooting sports, hunting and marksmanship skills vanish over a generation or two of government gradually tightening the noose on it or they can start to get more actively involved in what goes on in government.

For me Jacinda has already affected my plans with the clampdown on foreign ownership and now with possibilities for me to hunt and do sport shooting going bye bye, I'm in a quandary about my own plans going forward, whether investing in a small business and living there for part of the year and doing the things I want will even be possible. When I visit next summer I'm probably going to make some decisions about what to do next.

In any case, keep in mind everyone is in this together and while there is much difference in opinion to me that is all good. Through discussion good ideas are formed and we all in the end have to work together because right now there is a lot of evil, deceptive people aligned against us.