Brenton Tarrant ‘had clearly studied Martin Bryant’, gun club visitor claims

Visitor to gun club where Brenton Tarrant trained tells of chilling encounter with accused terrorist.

Brenton Tarrant, pictured on CCTV at an airport in Turkey, discussed the Port Arthur massacre, according to a visitor to his NZ gun club.

A visitor to the New Zealand gun club where Brenton Tarrant used to train says he heard the accused Christchurch terrorist discussing the details of the 1996 Port Arthur massacre.

Peter Breidahl visited the Bruce Rifle Club back in late 2017, around the same time Tarrant obtained his New Zealand firearms licence.

Mr Breidahl, who is an experienced hunter and former member of the NZ Army, said he was horrified by the culture of the club.

PART 1: The Killer Within — The Ruin of Brenton Tarrant

Mr Breidahl claims he was a party to one conversation with a group of shooters at the rifle range, which lies 20 minutes drive from the city of Dunedin on New Zealand’s South Island.

The Bruce Rifle Club at Narrowdale Rd in Milburn, about 50km's from Dunedin. Tarrant was a member there Picture: John Feder/The Australian.

He said the subject was the 1996 Port Arthur massacre in which gunman Martin Bryant killed 35 people at the former prison colony and tourist site.

Mr Breidahl said he believes one of the shooters in the group was Brenton Tarrant, who he claims had an intimate knowledge of how Bryant had operated.

“He was talking about how Martin Bryant had cornered people in the booth and how he managed to make so many head shots in such a rapid pace,’’ Breidahl says. “This is a guy who had clearly studied how Martin Bryant had did it in great detail.’’

Tarrant is accused of murdering 51 people and injuring 49 others in attacks on two Christchurch mosques in March. He has pleaded not guilty ahead of a trial.

Mr Breidahl said he was left with the impression Tarrant was “turning the map upside down’’ — a phrase used in the military to describe anticipating the enemy — in order to learn from Bryant’s massacre.

Port Arthur gunman Martin Bryant pictured in Risdon Prison, Hobart in 2015. Picture: Gary Ramage

Mr Breidahl’s account could not be verified by The Weekend Australian.

Other members of the Dunedin shooting community tell a different story.

They reject the notion that the Bruce Rifle Club had a problem with its members or the club ethos.

“All I’ve heard about the guy is that he was always very helpful, he didn’t turn up in Rambo-style gear,’’ said John Fooks, a clay-shooting coach in Dunedin who heard of, but never met, Tarrant, who The Weekend Australian yesterday revealed had sent a farewell message to his mother immediately before his alleged gun rampage in Christchurch.

“He just turned up as an ordinary guy. He would help set things up, he would help tidy things up at the end of the shoot. Just what any other club shooter would do. He didn’t stand out as a raving lunatic.’’

A young Brenton Tarrant in his father Rodney's arms.

The Port Arthur massacre has become a staple of right-wing conspiracy theorists, some of whom believe Martin Bryant’s shooting was a government plot aimed at robbing gun-owners of their firearms.

They argue that it was unlikely, if not impossible, that Bryant could have killed so many of his victims.

The Bruce rifle Club has since shut up shop and its secretariat did not respond to The Weekend Australian’s messages.

Part 2 of The Australian’s special investigation The Killer Within: how Brenton Tarrant went from country boy to terrorist continues tomorrow.