New Zealand police no longer involved in gun licensing
The New Zealand government will end police officers’ involvement in regulating gun ownership, an official has said, as it announced sweeping firearms law reforms.
The move is aimed at easing tensions between the gun regulator and firearm owners, which have been tense since the agency’s founding following the shooting massacre at two mosques in New Zealand.
The Firearms Safety Authority has been monitoring gun ownership since 2022 after an investigation highlighted that the white supremacist gunman had legally acquired numerous guns without facing law enforcement scrutiny.
The near-total ban on semi-automatics will continue.
The changes, announced in Wellington by Deputy Justice Minister Nicole McKee, fall short of what the police union and those who lost loved ones in the Christchurch massacre had feared: a reversal of the near-total ban on semi-automatic firearms after the gunman killed 51 Muslims as they prayed on March 15, 2019.
McKee, who lobbied for gun owners before entering parliament in 2020, told reporters that a proposal to relax a ban on semi-automatic weapons for some sporting shooters had not been approved by the Cabinet. His government had previously ruled out reversing the ban.
Instead, his changes focused on removing uniformed officers from the regulatory agency and changing its oversight. Once McKee’s legislation is passed, the authority will report directly to the government rather than the head of the New Zealand Police Service.
“There will be no blue shirts at the Firearms Safety Authority,” McKee said, referring to police uniforms. Fifteen police officers working for the authority will return to police duties, which will include enforcing gun crime laws.
“We need to rebuild the trust and confidence between the regulator and the licensed firearms community that has diminished significantly over the last six years,” McKee said. He said “much of the blame” for the Christchurch attack was directed at gun owners and that police should focus on law enforcement, not compliance or licensing.
The regulator is currently a unit within the police force. The change in law will create a more independent legal structure that will share only corporate services with the police force.
McKee said the body cannot be completely separated from the police department due to the reliance on law enforcement databases.
The Australian attacker, who moved to New Zealand to carry out the massacre, was given a license and legally collected semi-automatic weapons after being radicalized on the internet.
Tarrant pleaded guilty to terrorism charges, 51 murders and 37 attempted murders in 2020. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
“None of us want to see this again,” McKee said. But he said the rapid changes following the attack were “hasty, confusing and unfair.”
New Zealand was admired all over the world when then-Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said that the weapons used would be banned six days after the massacre. Other reforms included new gun club rules and a firearms registry.
A spokesman for the Licensed Firearms Owners Council, which McKee previously led, said the group welcomed the removal of police gun licences. Hugh Devereux-Mack said the regulatory structure led to “unfair and intimidating treatment” of gun owners.
