Gun licensing and the firearms registry are back in the news. I’m pleased they are.
The previous government’s firearms legislation was unworkable and rammed through Parliament. Hopefully we can now have a reasoned debate.
Where I become confused is the role of the police in the discussion. In my view it is far from credible.
Late last year there was a statement from Te Tari Pureke, AKA the Firearms Safety Authority. Remember how we were told that the Firearms Safety Authority was removed from the police and supposedly independent from them?
They’re not, they’re nothing more than a business unit of the police with the Firearms Safety Authority statement coming from the police media centre.
The police statement effusively told me that in September 2023 there were 10,044 licence holders who had joined the firearms registry, bringing 47,162 firearms with them.
We read that “licensed firearm owners across Aotearoa have been responding positively to the registry”. The statement then goes on to tell me how the country will be safer with a registry as it will “disrupt the flow of firearms to criminals”. I don’t believe either statement.
Sadly, that flow of stolen firearms to criminals is a mantra from the police, all be it misguided. For example,t a few weeks ago police union boss Chris Cahill told me that there were tens of thousands of illegal firearms in our communities with most of them stolen from licensed individuals or dealer’s premises.
That was countered by the Coalition of Licensed Firearm Owners, who received data under the Official Information Act that said that of the 6500 firearms seized by police over the past three years only 123 were legally imported or manufactured in NZ.
That tells me 98% were illegally imported so why do we need an arms registry? The facts don’t stack up. In addition, the firearms offences under the new law have increased.
Why then are the police and their union peddling misinformation?
But back to the Firearms Safety Authority statements lauding the 10,000 gun owners who joined the registry.
There are around 300,000 gun owners in NZ. Ten thousand licence holders is just over 3% of that total. And if I buy a firearm or shift house I am required by law to register my firearms. I wonder how many of the 10,000 volunteered and how many were required by law to join the register? I’d suggest the vast majority were there because the law said they had to be.
Again, why the police obfuscation?
It gets better with, the Firearms Safety Authority telling me that in a recent poll 71% of Kiwis supported the register with only 14% opposed. Unbelievably the poll was carried out for Gun Control NZ. I don’t believe the figures are remotely accurate, especially when the poll told me that 53% of us feel safer now the register is active. Statistics disagree.
It seems to me that the Firearms Safety Authority is desperate to maintain its gravy train. I’d humbly suggest that 71% of Kiwi’s wouldn’t know what a gun register was.
Here’s the problem. Most of my contemporaries don’t have a gun licence. They purchased a whole-of-life licence years back and when the then government changed the law they gave it the two-fingered salute.
It is inevitable the same situation will happen with the register. I know those who have their firearms and all the ammunition they need to see them out. Telling them they’re breaking the law is a waste of time encouraging the response “What are they going to do about it?”
And why are the police using taxpayer money to try to distort the democratic process? It does them no credit.
It also becomes farcical with Cahill accusing the minister responsible for gun law, Nicole McKee, of misleading statements. I’d humbly suggest he should know. He added that semi-automatic weapons were used in the Christchurch mosque attack. If the police hadn’t given the shooter a gun licence by their sloppy procedures, he wouldn’t have had any weapons.
The good news is that McKee knows exactly what she is talking about, which is unusual in a politician.
The coalition agreement says the entire shambles will be reviewed and I support that.
McKee wants to create a separate, fully independent Firearms Safety Authority. She wants to scrap the registry and have instant licence disqualification for gang membership. Finally, she wants overseas offences recognized in the vetting process.
She has already removed responsibility for the Arms Act from police to justice.
That will restore much needed credibility into the arms licensing process. Without the McKee reforms the shambles will remain.
I am supportive of the police. In Wairarapa they do an excellent job. I just don’t think a quasi-police organisation running a completely ineffective register is in either the police’s or the country’s best interests.
