The current law regarding firearms isn’t working. I’m aware of many firearm owners who don’t have a current arms licence for a variety of reasons. Discussing this with a Police friend, he made the comment that they were breaking the law, which is correct – they are. My response to that was to ask what the Police are going to do about it and the answer was “not much we can”.
We do need credible, workable and respected firearms laws in New Zealand and that must involve change. The current system isn’t working.
The minister responsible, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee, has grasped the nettle and is proceeding to reform the legislation. She’s paying a heavy price for that.
The current Act goes back to1983. That’s over 40 years ago. Life has changed and the introduction of 3D printers capable of manufacturing firearms would be one example.
Minister McKee has four phases with her reform process.
The first was to go after criminals and their guns and that’s been completed. Kiwis are safer now as a result of that process.
Phase Two was to reform the law involving the excessive and pointless bureaucracy over clubs and ranges. It had no impact on public safety.
Phase Three is the Registry review, which is underway. I’m pleased the Ministry of Justice is conducting the review and not the Police.
I’m cynical of the Registry for several reasons. For a start, the Police told me they needed a Register to be able to monitor those firearms stolen from legitimate owners. The reality is that of the 6500 firearms seized over the past three years, only 123 were legally imported or manufactured in NZ. A Register is a complete waste of time on that front alone.
The second is to ask if we need such an expensive and elaborate process when, as I’ve stated, a large number of firearm owners don’t even trust the current licensing system.
Finally, friends who do have a licence don’t want to be part of the Register. They just don’t trust the security of the Police system.
Phase Four is to rewrite the Arms Act and the minister is hoping for a draft by the end of the year. At this point she hasn’t received any advice on the Arms Act rewrite despite all the hysteria over the reforms.
Gun licensing will be going from Police, but no final details have been decided.
I support that. While I have considerable respect for the Police, gun licensing isn’t their stock in trade and as the awarding of a licence to a terrorist showed, they weren’t infallible.
In addition, their current system is farcical. It takes a one-page questionnaire to renew a driver’s licence and four to renew a liquor licence. Why then do you need 39 pages to renew a gun licence? It is a huge disincentive and just another reason why people don’t get licences.
For all those reasons I totally support Minister McKee’s reform process. If it gets cabinet approval we’ll have for the first time in decades a process that firearm owners will support as being workable and credible.
Her aim is to “develop good firearms legislation that will last for decades and keep the public safe”.
What has disappointed me most is the inaccurate portrayal of the McKee position combined with the personal attacks she has suffered.
For a start the only thing the opposition politicians, the Police Association and sections of the media have concentrated on is semi-automatics. Semi-automatics that our criminal elements are importing with impunity, a fact known to both the minister of police and the Police Association.
The classification of allowable firearms is recommended by the minister of police under section 74A of the Arms Act. In addition, any change of classification needs cabinet approval, not that of individual ministers as claimed by the hysterical. When in government, Labour used that section with impunity.
I’ve also been disgusted by the personal attacks on Minister McKee and am reminded of the old adage which suggests that if you can’t win an argument by using fact and reason, your only remaining option is to get personal.
The accusation that Minister McKee is an arms industry lobbyist is farcical. Yes, she was spokesperson for the Coalition of Licensed Firearm Owners over the previous government’s rushed and botched legislation. No one has added that the minister has spent a lifetime teaching firearms safety, is a NZ shooting champion and a communicator of the year in 2019. She knows what she is talking about, which is refreshing in a politician.
The anti-McKee cacophony coming from Labour’s Ginny Andersen and the Police Association’s Chris Cahill is just that, meaningless noise from Police lobbyists who should know better.
They would be better working with the coalition government to get workable, credible and respected firearms legislation instead of merely sitting in the wings throwing bricks.
