‘Perfect breeding ground for mass shooter’
Ex-soldier warned police on behaviour at rifle club the shooting suspect belonged to.
A former military machine gunner who visited the gun club where the mosque terror suspect trained says he was deeply troubled by its culture and lodged a complaint with police.
Police allege Brenton Tarrant, 28, was the gunman who entered two mosques in Christchurch on Friday and shot dead 49 people.
Tarrant obtained his firearms licence in November 2017 and began buying firearms the following month.
He lived in Dunedin and was a member of the Bruce Rifle Club in Milburn, near Milton in South Otago.
Pete Breidahl, 40, a former member of the New Zealand Defence Force, says he attended the club on three occasions, the last of which was in November 2017, and overheard members talking about mass shootings, the zombie apocalypse and Martin Bryant, the man responsible for the Port Arthur massacre.
He was concerned the ethos at the club was the ‘‘perfect breeding ground’’ for a mass shooter and lodged a formal complaint with police.
‘‘Forty-nine New Zealanders got killed yesterday and I’m pretty f...ing upset about it. I think it could have been prevented.’’
The rifle club says it will carry out a review of its culture in light of the terror attack, but strongly rejects any suggestion its culture bred a killer.
Breidahl, a long-range shooting instructor who owns a hunting business, told the Sunday Star-Times yesterday he was ‘‘heartbroken’’ by the terror attack in Christchurch.
While living in Dunedin, he said he went to the Bruce Rifle Club three times. The first two visits were to check out the range and to zero a rifle. The third, in November 2017, was a military shoot day.
‘‘The conversations I had and the people I met literally terrified me to my core and I left early.’’
‘‘The place just stunk of inadequacy compensated through use and ownership of semi-automatic firearms. It was pretty f...ing disturbing.’’
He said he went to the Dunedin police station not long after and lodged a formal complaint with the arms officer.
‘‘I was advised they were well aware of the Bruce Rifle Club – ‘They’re just a bunch of silly old duffers, that’s just what they’re like down there, they’re a bit funny but it’s nothing to worry about’.’’
Bruce Rifle Club vicepresident Scott Williams said he strongly denied Breidahl’s allegations, but said the club would carry out a review of its culture.
Any talk of zombies might have ‘‘been in jest’’ and those involved in the conversation might have been ‘‘watching Walking Dead on TV’’.
‘‘We certainly don’t breed any mass killers.’’
Williams said club members were ‘‘shocked and stunned’’ when they heard Tarrant had been arrested in connection with Friday’s terror attack.
There were no warning signs he would commit such an atrocity.
‘‘I think we’re all pretty ... saddened,’’ he said.
Last night police said they had no record of a complaint, but were looking into the claims.
‘‘Forty-nine New Zealanders got killed yesterday and I’m pretty f...ing upset about it. I think it could have been prevented.’’ Shooting instructor and former military man Pete Breidahl