Thread: New range laws and shooting on unregistered ranges

Thanks for posting this @Krameranzac... I admit I had done none of my own research on this.

Sorry if I'm going over old ground here, and I get people's caution/healthy cynicism on real-life interpretation, but the wording is actually pretty clear.

Taking Jusepy's example of blasting some clays or sighting in on a family/friends farm, which will hopefully apply to me very soon:

While you are undertaking shooting activities ("using a firearm... for the purpose of shooting at inanimate targets..."), you are not doing it as part of a shooting club, or as a member of public, or on an area of designated land used... for the primary purpose of shooting at inanimate targets.

Does anyone else read/interpret that differently?


Section 38, Parts 6 and 7 (https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/...LMS256768.html)
shooting activities—
(a)
means activities that are carried out using a firearm or an airgun for the purpose of shooting at inanimate targets (whether fixed or moving); but
(b)
excludes—
(i)
paintball shooting; and
(ii)
airsoft shooting
shooting club means a voluntary association of people who—
(a)
act in accordance with a set of written rules; and
(b)
participate in, or intend to participate in, shooting activities on a regular basis
shooting range—
(a)
means a facility (whether indoor or outdoor), or a designated area of land, used by a shooting club or members of the public for the primary purpose of carrying out shooting activities; and
(b)
includes any defence area (as that term is defined in section 2(1) of the Defence Act 1990) used by a shooting club.

Originally Posted by yeah_na_missed

means a facility (whether indoor or outdoor), or a designated area of land, used by a shooting club or members of the public for the primary purpose of carrying out shooting activities;

@yeah_na_missed,
I think the Police interpretation is based upon that there is a comma after the word "land" and the fact there is not one after the word "public".

So by their interpretation "used by a shooting club or members of the public for the primary purpose of carrying out shooting activities" has nothing to do with the primary land use - it has to do with for what primary purpose do "a shooting club or members of the public" use the land for. If they use the land for shooting then Police will considered it a range.

Originally Posted by Gillie

@yeah_na_missed,
I think the Police interpretation is based upon that there is a comma after the word "land" and the fact there is not one after the word "public".

So by their interpretation "used by a shooting club or members of the public for the primary purpose of carrying out shooting activities" has nothing to do with the primary land use - it has to do with for what primary purpose do "a shooting club or members of the public" use the land for.

Primarily use it for a BBQ and secondarily use it for sighting in, understood.