I had hoped to be done with columns on this subject as changes would have been allowed to take root and demonstrate their value to the safety of all New Zealanders.
Such optimism has been delivered a swift kick as Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee works assiduously to please her small band of firearms lobbyists by winding back the clock on the majority.
The first red flag is her limiting consultation on amendments to rules around gun clubs and ranges. These clubs play an important part in firearms safety and education, and if changes are required, let’s have transparency during that process. Instead, a few handpicked organisations (excluding the association) were given 14 working days to comment on an extremely limited discussion document that was bereft of data and detail on what and why changes are needed.
If this is how the minister intends to consult on more serious reforms – particularly the review of the Firearms Registry – she has given New Zealanders reason for concern.
I note the minister’s anti-registry campaign has taken two serious hits this past month.
First was the release of a Police survey showing Te Tari Pūreke (Firearms Safety Authority) has the trust and confidence of 68 per cent of firearms licence holders. This is higher than the trust and confidence that the public has in all of Police. It is evidence of hard work by the firearms team to win back the support of the firearms community – the most obvious success being the introduction of the registry on time and on budget.
The registry is easy to navigate, and firearms owners are quickly realising the efforts of the Council of Licensed Firearms Owners to discredit it are proving unfounded.
Then you must ask why the minister would continue to promote the incredibly expensive and risky idea of moving Te Tari Pūreke to be overseen by another government department, potentially endangering all this good work. It is a separation that could result in intelligence failure, with valuable information not reaching police in time to prevent a fatal incident.
The second hit was Police briefing the minister on the reality of straw buyers of firearms (retail diversion) constituting the single biggest source of illegal firearms for criminals, including the gang members that the Coalition Government is targeting in its tough-on-crime pledge.
Recent data shows up to 227 Alfa Carbine rifles alone are believed to have been diverted to criminals. That is nearly 30 per cent of all such firearms imported into Aotearoa. There are thousands more of other types of firearms that could have been diverted.
The registry, long opposed by the minister, is the key to stopping this illegal supply route. To preach safety at the same time as opposing the registry is disingenuous.
We are also on alert to the possibility of the re-introduction of semi-automatic assault rifles, which the minister says more than 1600 Kiwis have access to, omitting to clarify that most are inoperable and only 320 pest controllers are licensed to use these deadliest of weapons.
They are guns that have no place in recreational New Zealand and their reappearance would be an insult to the memory of the victims of the Aramoana and Christchurch massacres. The minister does not have the mandate from New Zealanders to issue that insult.
