Once upon a time, the country of New Zealand wasn’t as anti-gun as a lot of nations. People could own things like AR-15s and many did. The nation also had a rich history of hunting and fishing. They were, in many ways, a nation many of us could relate to, even if not as good about firearms as we would like.

Then Christchurch happened and everything started going sideways for gun owners there.

The AR-15 was banned, for one thing, but that was just the start.

Now, hunters in New Zealand are upset at still more gun control being proposed.

Better, not more, rules were needed on gun ownership, a meeting in Alexandra heard on Friday night.

Members of New Zealand Deer Hunters Association groups from Central Otago, Upper Clutha and Queenstown Lakes district met with Southland MP Joseph Mooney and National spokesman for hunting and fishing Todd McClay to discuss proposed new gun laws.

Mr Mooney said he had had a gun licence since the age of 16.

“It’s important to get outdoors, hang out with mates and gather food.”

Guns were also an important tool for farmers, he said.

Mr McClay said the price of licensing was the smallest part of the “havoc” about to be inflicted on responsible people.

…

People in cities were worried about guns after the terrorist shootings in Christchurch in 2019, he said.

Audience members were united in their belief that responsible gun owners were being punished for the actions of one who was not.

I read that line and this is all I could imagine:

I mean, this is common as hell for we American gun owners.

At the heart of things is a proposed rise in the cost of a gun license to $1,000 to renew it.

Yeah, I simply can’t imagine why they’d be bent out of shape about this.

Let’s remember that the Christchurch killer may have had a license himself, but it was wrongly granted under existing laws. Now, tell me, is it right to punish law-abiding gun owners in New Zealand because of a law enforcement mistake?

Of course, we’ve seen that particular dance a few thousand times as well.

In fact, these folks aren’t seeing anything new. This is all stuff we saw time and time again.

What I’m curious about, though, is just how many of them supported the ban on things like the AR-15s following Christchurch. How many of them are people we’d call Fudds?

I bet a lot of them are.

You see, the Fudd thinks their guns are safe. They believe that hunting weapons aren’t ever going to come under fire (no pun intended), so they don’t mind using their status as gun owners to throw you and your guns under the bus.

The problem is that no gun is ever safe.

Gun licensing wasn’t a problem for many of these New Zealand gun owners, but now that they’re likely to be priced out of things, it’s an issue. Now they’re all sounding an awful lot like Gun Owners of America or something.

To be fair, I also know that many saw this kind of thing coming. They’d seen things elsewhere and knew the days of being able to own guns with relative ease were going to come to an end if things went as they did following Christchurch.

Either way, they can now see what we’ve been up against for decades.

For our domestic gun control enthusiasts, maybe they can start to see why we’re so determined not to take even a tiny step back. It’s because we know it won’t be the last step in that direction.