On Monday June 25, at Saxton Field Netball Pavillion, about seventy of us met for an Arms Act Service Delivery Group Meeting, and were welcomed by Superintendent Mike McIlraith, who stated that the purpose of the meeting was to hear from the shooting community how best to administer the Arms Act. He stated at the outset that the Act was not going to change. The police were finding it difficult to administer – in his words, it was ‘paper-heavy’- and he had been charged with the job of working with shooters to make sure the existing firearms laws were followed efficiently and fairly. Currently the quarter-million licenced firearms users bring in $5.5 million a year, whereas it costs the police $11 million to administer the Act. His job therefore was to fix how the Arms Act was administered, and to work with shooters until it was fixed. He had a small team and a very small budget. He wanted to co-operate with the shooting community, and for the shooting community to co-operate with the police, and for future action to be guided by those who were involved in the shooting sports.
The meeting was asked to make any suggestions as to how to improve matters. The suggestions were to be discussed and the meeting would conclude by participants agreeing which were the most significant five. Mike McIlraith and his colleague occasionally spoke to clear up questions raised from the floor. Many of the questions that were raised are already covered online here http://www.police.govt.nz/advice/firearms-and-safety/news-and-updates
The meeting had no other structure and, as such, it is difficult to arrange points in anything other than the confused manner they arose.
From the Police: Police are keen to remove paperwork as much as possible because it ties up staff. Online applications are far cheaper if people are happy to use them. https://www.realme.govt.nz/ is a government method for verifying online identity and could be used to simplify interactions between police and shooters.
From the floor: Not everyone at the meeting was happy to use this for reasons of online privacy. A show of hands revealed that most were prepared to use online transactions, but a fair minority were concerned about hacking.
From the floor: What’s the police policy on Trademe? Have they handed Trademe a list of the country’s firearms licence holders, with all the likelihood of that being hacked?
From the Police: At present it is up to individuals whether or not to inform Trademe that they are a Firearms Licence holder. The police do not give a list of licence holders to Trademe. Trademe asks the police if an individual is a licence holder, and the police merely give a yes/no answer.
From the floor: Some of the recent law changes have been ridiculous. You may no longer import air pistols. The law now says that an air pistol may not resemble a real pistol.
From the Police: Gulp!
From the floor: The Counties Manakau facebook video of police destroying firearms panders to the anti-gun lobby. Two Anschütz air rifles, of precision accuracy but very low power, are shown being destroyed, and each cost upwards of five thousand dollars. Elderly farmers seeing it might be discouraged from handing in their guns. If the police wanted old guns handed in, this video should be taken down.
From the Police: Thank you, I’ll see it’s deleted.
From the floor: Did the police keep a record of firearms incidents? It would be useful to know how any accident or deliberate shooting happened so we can get a clear picture of firearms abuse and firearms crime.
From the Police: The press report any hunting accident, but police do not give further details of that incident until after any court case or inquest.
From the floor: The police website has a link to a statistical analysis, under a search for A Hunter’s tale. https://www.mountainsafety.org.nz/insights/a-hunters-tale/
From the Police: Training is difficult to achieve and expensive in remote places like Haast. The pre-exam safety lecture is to be improved to include handling of deactivated firearms. Police encourage new licence holders to associate with clubs or experienced hunters. It was worrying when a new licence holder purchased a gun and then asked the shopkeeper to explain how to use it. The teaching of gun handling needed to happen well before someone owned a gun.
From the floor: It was suggested that the ten-year relicensing could be of benefit as a refresher course in gun safety.
From the Police: An online safety course is being devised. Police are encouraged when firearms safety training takes place in schools and youth organisations.
From the floor: Police were praised in their handling of firearms going through international airports in NZ by those travelling into or out of the country for sporting or competitive reasons.
From the floor: Referees should not only know an applicant, but also be experienced shooters. It was suggested that if an inappropriate person asked a friend to be a referee, the duty of a referee was to accept the invitation, and then inform the arms officer why the referee deemed the applicant inappropriate. (“I had a good mate but he was a right plonker and he asked me to be a referee, and I thought, no way is he ever going to be safe with a gun, so I said yes, and then I told the interviewing bloke why I thought he was a plonker. That way I took a danger out of the community. He didn’t get his licence.” Harsh, but responsible.)
From the Police: Inappropriate applicants are discouraged along the way before they sit the safety exam. People with a history of violence or depression soon know not to continue with their application. 99% of applicants have their licence granted. Mental illness is not an obstacle if it is under medical care, but if a licence holder stops taking their medication and becomes a danger to themselves or others, it is up to anyone who knows them to alert police to the problem.
From the floor: Could the police redress the negative coverage given to the police association over any firearms issue? The police association is a union and their leaders consistently ask for tight firearms control and gun registration. It was pointed out that the press tend to portray the police association as giving the official NZ police view. NZ police is a government body and has the duty to remain neutral, but it would be encouraging if NZ police were to engage more with the press whenever the police association made one of their anti-gun statements, and to state that it did not represent the official view.
From the Police: The press decide what to publish. Mike McIlraith had been interviewed for five minutes on camera, and all that was shown afterwards was a five-second clip. Police have no control over the press.
From the floor: Can you clarify who may sell ammunition?
From the Police: A licence holder may sell ammunition to another licence holder.
From the floor: Could police arms officers be more consistent over NZ in their approach to licence holders? In some districts the arms officer followed the exact law, while in other districts an arms officer might be officious and ask for details beyond his authority.
From the Police: Superintendent McIlraith acknowledged that many constables were unclear on their authority over arms and accepted that more training of police officers was required.
From the floor: Should there be a register of arms if a large number, say more than fifteen, of guns were held?
From the Police: There are no plans for a register. If there were to be a register it would require Parliament to change the law. It would not be a matter for police. Police only uphold the law: they do not make it. Owners should keep a record for themselves.
From the floor: What if a bloke did something bad, and the police came to seize his guns? What’s to stop him handing in fifteen and keeping twenty of them hidden away?
From the floor: Registration doesn’t work; we know that; and fifteen or any other number is arbitrary. What would stop him keeping just one gun hidden if he had two?
From the Police: Gun registration was used in Canada and it didn’t work and has been abandoned there.
From the floor: How big is the problem of stolen firearms?
From the Police: Without checking the numbers, it’s believed that around 700 guns are stolen each year.
From the floor: What do the police deem as an acceptable number of illegally held firearms? We have to be realistic that there are illegal guns in circulation.
From the Police: There is no acceptable number. The police position is that no firearm may be in the possession of anyone who does not hold a firearms licence.
From the floor: It was suggested that gun owners keep a record of each gun, its serial number, make, model, and a photograph of it. Police do not have authority to ask for these details. Nor do they have the resources to compile a list. This would be solely the business of the gun owner and would be useful in the event of a burglary.
Summary
The meeting concluded with a summing up of what the participants thought were the five most important points. (These were reasonably consistent from meetings held so far throughout the country.)
- Communication. There needed to be clear and easy communication between police and licence holders.
- Consistency. Police needed to apply a consistent policy across the country, and officers needed to know what details they could and could not ask for, and what security arrangements they could and could not demand.
- Online verification needed to be reliable and secure and could make applications simpler.
- A balanced media coverage was needed to stop the press indulging in a pointless frenzy targeting the responsible gun owner after any gun crime. This was not the responsibility of police bu, tthey would do what they could.
- Safety training needed to be enhanced, and referees needed to be experienced in shooting and honest in their opinions.
The police were thanked at the end in the usual way, and Superintendent McIlraith said he was going to the UK for a week to study how their firearms acts were administered in three regions – in Northern Ireland, in Scotland, and from the Home Office in London. He was studying only the administration, and the NZ government was not planning to bring in UK firearms laws.