18 Mar 2019

Gun safety advocate: 'You can swap a semi-automatic firearm in a pub carpark'

From Nine To Noon, 9:38 am on 18 March 2019

A gun safety advocate says police have completely lost control of how many guns are owned in New Zealand.

n 2017, of the 43,509 firearm licence applications, just 188 applications were declined; a pass rate of 99.6 percent.

Photo: 123RF

Cabinet ministers are being briefed today on what changes could be made to gun laws, after the Prime Minister promised the laws would be changed as a result of the shooting.

Philip Alpers, the founding director of GunPolicy.org, said in New Zealand it was possible to buy guns at clubs, or online.

"You can swap a semi-automatic firearm in a pub carpark in New Zealand, and you're in no way obliged to keep documentation of that transfer or to prove that you even saw the person's firearm licence. There's no record kept of that transaction."

Mr Alpers said a question that needed to be asked was whether the shooter came to New Zealand because it was possible to get his hands on certain guns.

It would not have been possible for the shooter to do in Australia what he'd done in Christchurch, he said.

In the late 90s centre-fire semi-automatic rifles and shotguns were banned and those that were in circulation bought at market rates and destroyed.

New Zealand decided not to take the same action, with the police minister at the time saying gun laws were strong enough to prevent a massacre, Mr Alpers said.

The secretary of the Council of Licenced Firearms Owners, Nicole McKee, said military style semi-automatics in this country were registered with the police.

"They do know where they are, the people that have them must have tighter or heightened security in order to keep them. We also are under a lot more scrutiny from police, with regular vetting every three years."

She said if there was "knee-jerk" legislation made, like what was implemented in Australia, there could be unintended consequences.

"If we start saying 'we need to ban this particular thing and do it right now' there could be an element of people that just start sending stuff under the radar, and we don't want that.

"We want this to be controlled, to be agreed upon, to be effective.

"We are not the terrorists but should not be punished for what some nutter, extremist, has come into our country and done. But we also want to make sure no one else can get access to the tools that are required to do this again."

The group supported a look at the current licensing processes, and what could be tightened.

RNZ have contacted police for comment.