IMPORTANT UPDATE: NZDA Wellington Branch - Rifle Range - CLOSED to NZDA members and general public this Sunday, 24th March.
As of 3pm 21 March 2019 changes have been made by Order in Council [Arms (Military Style Semi-Automatic Firearms) Order 2019] which brings two additional groups of semi-automatic firearms within the definition of MSSAor E-Cat firearms - essentially, any centrefire semi-auto rifle that can accommodate a 6-shot or more detachable magazine (whether you have such capacity magazine or not) is now an E-Cat firearm. Please familiarise yourself with these new laws.
Please refer to COLFO, who NZDA supports, for any questions or concerns around these laws. We are also happy to hear your concerns and pass them on the our National Executive who we understand are working thoughtfully and diligently with Government.
URGENT UPDATE
Our Branch Rifle Range is to remain closed this Sunday, 24th March. We will revisit reopening the range next Sunday. You will be notified of this decision next Friday. If you do not hear via email that the Rifle Range is officially open, assume it is closed.
CHANGE IN ACCESS/USE OF RIFLE RANGE:
Our Rifle Range will now be closed to General Public until further notice.
Only financial NZDA members and their supervised guests can use the Rifle Range.
Our trepidation is that members of the public (and branch members) may unwittingly use firearms that have been reclassified to MSSA that where previously A-Cat and would be committing an offence themselves and within the club's facilities, bringing the club into disrepute with authorities.
We point out that at the Rifle Range, MSSAs pre- and post- 3pm 21 March 2019 were/are banned from the range at the request of our landlord, regardless if someone holds an E-Cat licence.
BRING MEMBERSHIP CARD AND FAL
You must bring your current membership card and firearms licence (FAL) to show on request of the duty Range Officer.
Our website will be updated to say that our range is closed, this is for the benefit of the public, until we determine a suitable way to convey on the website to both public and members the range status.
We apologise to members of the public and members whom will be inconvenienced by this but will be turning away anyone unable to be easily identified as a member or who presents MSSAs.
Please make this easy for our volunteers and Range Officers and leave semi-automatic firearms that are currently in limbo at home. You can take any .22 rimfires, i.e. Ruger 10/22, as these are expressly excluded from the semi-auto category change to E-Cat.
The immediate changes to firearms are available on the New Zealand Police website here: https://www.police.govt.nz/advice/firearms-and-safety/changes-firearms
You must comply fully with the law whilst using firearms within the club facilities and at large.
As the Committee we have made this decision to the best of our ability in limited time, to expedite the timely distribution of this update as quickly as possible it may not have all the information you would want or expect. We will work to understand how this impacts our range rules.
We thank you all for understanding and for being responsible firearms owners whilst we adapt to the latest developments.
Sincerely,
Wellington Branch Committee
