Can saying things the government doesn't like land you in hot water?
In a free nation, the answer is no, it won't. While the powers that be might not like what you have to say, you have the right to say it. That includes some pretty stupid stuff. If it does, that's a hallmark of tyranny, which folks in New Zealand need to come to terms with.
It seems that so-called sovereign citizens, something we've seen here in some rather hilarious videos of police stops among other places--not all stops are humorous, after all, as these people have killed officers--are also a thing in New Zealand.
And the way the government there is reacting shows that you don't have free speech rights or gun rights if you're a Kiwi.
"Sixty-two firearms licence holders with views aligned to the Sovereign Citizens movement had their licences revoked after a police intelligence operation," Catherine Hubbard reported for the Waikato Times on October 13. "Nationally, police identified 1,400 people as acting under the influence of Sovereign Citizen ideologies, and of that number, 158 were firearms licence holders."
If you're not familiar with the term, "sovereign citizen" is a general description for various people who deny the legitimacy of government and claim to live under common law separate from rules imposed by the state. That is, they go beyond the skepticism of government legitimacy shared by many people, including philosophical anarchists like Michael Huemer (I recommend his book, The Problem of Political Authority) and sometimes try to live by their ideas. They might refuse to use license plates and file liens against government officials while wielding garbled legal arguments that they—incorrectly—think will ward off unimpressed cops and judges.
Like anybody else, they're occasionally dangerous. But mostly, they're that guy who corners you at a party to tell you about his magic constitutional revelation that will immunize you against the income tax.
Sovereign citizens have found fertile ground in New Zealand, given a boost by the country's harsh COVID-era restrictions. And, for some reason, they really upset government officials in that country.
"The Police Security Intelligence and Threats Group's Operation Belfast in September 2022 aimed at identifying safety risks to staff from people influenced by Sovereign Citizen ideologies," Hubbard added in her piece. "In most instances, no charges were laid in respect of a revocation process, unless the former licence holder had committed a criminal offence."
Beliefs That Aren't 'Fit and Proper'
That's right, the country's police conducted a domestic intelligence operation to identify people who hold cranky ideological beliefs. They were stripped of their firearms licenses because they were no longer considered "fit and proper" to possess them.
It seems there's a bit in New Zealand's law that actually allows them to remove someone's gives if "exhibited, encouraged, or promoted violence, hatred, or extremism."
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Now, a lot of us might categorize "sovereign citizens" as extremists, but here's the rub: I've been categorized as an extremist a time or two. If you're paying for a VIP membership, you've probably been labeled one, too. In fact, pretty much everyone to the right of Mao has at one time or another, and generally by the very same people who wonder why you won't support their push to disarm "extremists."
Yet that battle was lost in New Zealand, and if you express opinions that the mainstream has decided are extremist, you get the police knocking on your door and taking your guns away because the government decided to revoke your license.
Now, keep in mind that these were people who actually had licenses. They probably weren't that deep in the "sovereign citizen" thing in the first place.
Regardless, though, these were people who exercised their freedom of speech and because of that, they were stripped of their right to keep and bear arms. While New Zealand may not have codified either of those rights in their constitution, the truth is that those are natural rights, rights we possess by virtue of being free men and women, and so New Zealanders have them, even if some don't like them.
What happened there is the hallmark of tyranny. It's taking away rights because the state has decided you're the enemy. How much of a step away are we from herding these people into camps?
Then again, considering how New Zealand reacted to COVID-19, I expect those any day now.
