FSS NZ delivered a short firearms safety instruction for the junior members of the Brooklyn Smallbore Rifle Club in Wellington recently. Craig Fair, Committee member of the BSRC wrote:
Nicole came to our club to talk to our junior shooters about firearms safety. What a great way to teach our young shooters especially as she made it relate more to target shooting so had more meaning for them. Thank you Nicole – your approach to teaching our junior members was great and I hope many others can benefit from your vast experience.
FSS NZ founder Nicole McKee was approached by keen hunter Charlie Trotter for assistance in upskilling his shooting techniques. Charlie’s appreciation was gratefully received
2016 06 17th – Charlie Trotter Testimonial
As FSS NZ moved south with the Whakatupato programme into the Whanganui Rohe we received praise for our efforts at Whangaehu Marae, Whangaehu and at Parikino Marae up the Whanganui River.
2016 05 30th – Whangaehu Marae Testimonial FSS NZ
2016 06 01st – Whanganui Testimonial FSS NZ
HFEx Ltd – Investigating, Analysing and Preventing Human Error
I completed a firearms safety training course and examination recently. I personally don’t like doing exams but Nicole helped assure me that I could pass. I was happy to see that I aced the exam and I attribute this to the effectiveness and delivery of Nicole. I would wholeheartedly recommend her for anyone seeking relevant services. Nicole’s approach to learning is second to none.
Karl Bridges – Managing Director of HFEx Ltd – www.hfex.co.nz 
We completed a firearms safety policy for Tess who sent us:
Firearms Safety Specialists NZ are an incredibly savvy training organisation that completely understand competency in a commercial enterprise.
Not only were they interested in keeping our people safe with quality training, but added additional value and advice from a compliance and process perspective.
Tess Martin – Learning & Development Manager
Reprinted below are excerpts received from a letter that the Chairman of Otukou Marae, Lake Rotoaira, Turangi had written after our Whakatupato Course, November 2015.
“Ngati Hikairo is a Hapu of Ngati Tuwharetoa who have lived off the land since our occupation of our mountain valleys many centuries ago. Our Hapu are hunters and gatherers of food. Our tribal estate is our Pataka. We know every aspect of this environment, the best times to gather specific food from our forests and waterways, and also when and where to hunt. This is not a sport or recreation for our people, it is a necessity to feed their whanau, and also an integral part of our Cultural DNA.
Our Hapu members were taught to hunt and gather food from their youth. For Ngati Hikairo the early child-hood progression is usually, walk, ride, bush, fish, hunt, and not necessarily in that order. I believe this is the situation in all rural Maori communities, we grow up hunting.
There however, has always been a societal disconnect, in that there is a large natural grouping in Aotearoa that hunt within the lore of their people, while remaining outside the law of the land. Do they have guns? of course they do. Did they ever have they security of a gun safety programme? No, of knowing how to safely store a firearm? No, Of operating so that they did not further criminalise themselves? No, Of having trust in the system? No
This circumstance pushes our whanau even further from mainstream society. Whereby, their actions and activities are clandestine and carry the perpetual risk of being “caught out” This nurtures distrust, which in turn encourages negative associate behaviour which invariably results in further alienation of large sectors of our rural Maori community.
Otukou Marae, Turangi
Kia Whakatupato blew that all away in one weekend. Because of the manner in which the programme was delivered and the calibre of the deliverers, decades of apprehension and distrust dissolved before the first morning tea break. The group was animated, exciting, enthusiastic and appreciative.
We the Whanau of Otukou, Ngati Hiakiro and Ngati Tuwharetoa cannot thank you enough. For somewhere between the 28th & 29th of November this gathering had ceased just been just about a gun license. It had became the first step in re-engaging our whanau in mainstream society. We saw pride in achievement, gratitude in tutors who had not written them off as so many had done before, and a willingness to trust again.
We thank you for bringing this Kaupapa together, and for bringing all the various participants together to have this programme on our marae such a success. If there was ever a recipe for transformation it was this programme and the people who delivered it, and the manner in which it was delivered.”
The full version of this letter can be viewed here – Otukou Marae Letter