ACT is suggesting a new Firearms Authority be established to administer firearm use in Aotearoa and crackdown on guns falling into the hands of criminals.
It has yet to release its firearms policy but its spokesperson for firearms, Nicole McKee, says current legislation and proposed changes by the government focus on gun control of responsible owners and not targeting illegal possession.
McKee (Ngāpuhi) describes the gun registry, which launched in June and requires the 200,000 gun owners in Aotearoa to register their firearms within five years, as a “money pit” that will achieve little.
“ACT would like to see that money actually put into fighting illegal firearm ownership and the crime that goes with that.
“Stats tell us that 95 per cent of firearms seized from illegal owners actually have no licences on them. So really, we’re talking about a massive sector of our society who have criminal misuse, which are never going to come under the legal system.
Marked increase of firearms in crime
“We’ve got to make sure that the legal system is robust to keep law-abiding people fit and proper, but also have some money put aside to actually go after the illegal activity of criminals. And we’re not seeing that as robustly as we should.”
In June, Detective Senior Sergeant Mike Beal of the Firearms Investigation Team told RNZ police had seen a marked increase of firearms in criminal activity since 2015.
“The sad reality was many of the firearms seized in police operations such as Tauwhiro and Cobalt were being traced back to legal purchases,” he said.
In that same article, Sydney University associate professor for public health Philip Alpers said the creation of gun registries after Australia’s Port Arthur massacre in 1996 led to a dramatic drop in firearms being stolen for criminal gain.
“A gun registry changes attitudes to how people store their guns, how people use, sell and trade their firearms and it makes each individual gun owner personally responsible for each gun in their possession,” Alpers said.
‘What is going to make us safe?’
McKee, however, isn’t convinced. She says there are an estimated 200,000 illegal firearms in Aotearoa, and expecting those owners to voluntarily register them is unrealistic.
“I just got an OIA [response] over the weekend, which said that out of 1200 firearms seized by police, only 394 of them actually had serial numbers on them.
“Firearms legislation has been pushed upon the country as saying we need to make all these changes because it’s going to make us safe. In actual fact, let’s get everybody around the table and ask what is going to make us safe. What is the regime that we need to implement?”
While details are yet to be released, McKee says ACT believes a whole new Arms Act is required.
“We need to remove the administration of all firearms from police and put it into a truly separate authority as the Royal Commission inquiry suggested, and actually get tougher on criminals and on their illegal acquisition of firearms and the illegal use of it.”
McKee expects the ACT firearms policy to be released in the coming weeks and invites feedback ahead of the election.
