COLFO News Issue # 3 July 2024
Arms Law Reform
Associate Justice Minister Hon Nicole Mckee has announced a programme of work to
reform the laws and regulations relating to firearms, with ultimately a rewrite of the
Arms Act. Nicole had this to say: “The Arms Act has been in place for over 40 years. It
has been amended several times – in a piecemeal, and sometimes rushed way. This has
resulted in outdated and complicated requirements that unfairly target licensed
firearms owners, often with no clear benefit to public safety.”
Rewriting the Act is Phase 4 of a four-part programme of overlapping reform. The first
three phases are already underway:
• Legislation is before Parliament to strengthen firearms prohibitions orders and
increase powers to search gang members for firearms.
• Proposals for the simple and effective regulation of shooting clubs are out for
consultation with stakeholder groups. (Note - the easing of a requirement for annual
reports for non-pistol clubs and ranges has already been implemented).
• The Firearms Registry is being reviewed, and ACT’s coalition agreement commits to
transferring the Firearms Safety Authority from Police to another Government
department. (COLFO understands that the transfer to the Ministry of Justice has
begun)
COLFO Provides Feedback
COLFO and our member organisations, both collectively and individually have provided
constructive feed back to the Ministry of Justice on the draft Clubs & Ranges Discussion
Document. This includes details that need more precise definition for clarity, resolving
ambiguities in the current law and further suggestions for improvements.
COLFO will be active in all stages of the law reform process over the course of the next
year and encourage all licensed firearm owners to actively engage in the public process.
Reforms Under Attack
Already the proposed reforms are under attack by the likes of the Police Association,
Federation of Islamic Associations and Gun Control NZ, who all claim that the initial
targeted 2 week consultation of a draft discussion document of proposed changes to the
clubs and ranges regulations was “undemocratic”, “rushed” and “secretive”.
They chose to ignore the fact that once finalised the discussion document will be
available for public consultation. One might ask what do any of these organisations
know about clubs and ranges anyway.
COLFO Hits Back
COLFO chair Brad Gallop hit back at the criticism of the draft Clubs & Ranges document
with the following press release.
"The Minister’s Arms Advisory Group (MAAG) assisted the Government on a draft of the
soon to be formally released discussion document regarding law changes to improve the
regulation of firearm clubs and ranges. Clubs and Ranges specialists and the Firearms
Safety Authority were asked to undertake an initial check that the Ministry of Justice
document was technically accurate.
COLFO compliments the Ministry of Justice and the Government for using MAAG, a
formal Ministerial Advisory Group, to provide advice on draft documents prior to release.
This is exactly what the advisory group was designed to do.
COLFO is very disappointed that some groups, including the Police Union, are trying to
circumvent a well-established advisory group function, and are complaining about the
Government following proper Parliamentary process.
COLFO is not surprised by the comments of Chris Cahill, spokesperson for the Police
Union, who is never shy to misinterpret and scaremonger without first finding out the
facts.
Chris Cahill and the Police Union are not connected to firearm clubs and ranges, nor is
the Union part of a formal Ministerial Advisory Group. They will be able to submit on the
changes when the Discussion Document is formally released for public consultation as
per the usual parliamentary process.”
Anti Gun Lobby Rallying Their Troops
GCNZ is up to their old trick of misleading their members and the general public in order
to rally support for their cause to make gun ownership harder than ever.
In a recent news letter - “the Coalition Government, and their approach to gun policy is
now crystal clear – mislead and exclude the public. More details below about how Nicole
McKee is misleading the public on the number of prohibited firearms and her dubious
"consultation" on the regulation of clubs and ranges.”
“At several points earlier this year, Nicole McKee said that more than 6,600 New
Zealanders were “legitimately in possession of” semi-automatic guns. That number was
wrong by a large margin. Firearms Safety Authority / Te Tari Pūreke data in fact showed
that only around 1500 people could possess the firearms banned in 2019 and of those,
only 328 people were permitted to fire them (mainly for pest control).”
From the previous statement it is clear that GCNZ do not understand the difference
between “semi automatic” and “prohibited firearms”, for example many models of .22 rifle
and pistols (B Endorsed) are semi automatic and still lawful to own in NZ.
Talk to your MP
GCNZ are advising their members to let their local MP know their views on the reform of
gun laws.
COLFO urges you to do the same. Let your MP hear your views, support changes that are
evidence based to make New Zealanders safer and oppose those that simply restrict gun
owners for no evidence based reason. Point out that the Arms Act is old, poorly written
and needs updating.
Registration for Collectors
The Firearm Safety Authority have now released their assisted upload programme.
This is for collectors who have 50 plus firearms or arms items like magazines etc,
however if you had 45 items they wont be turning you away.
When the time comes for you to register your firearms you can access the assisted
upload section and download either a word document or an XLS spread sheet that
has been populated with common firearms and common calibres. You fill in the
columns with the required data and email it back to FSA. Your file goes into a holding
server where the FSA staff confirm everything is correct and then they upload it
into the register.
Do you think your gun is registered?
Some recent conversations have lead to the realisation that there are a significant
number of firearm owners who believe that their gun does not need to be registered.
This because at some time in the distance past they were required to register it or
provided a list of serial numbers to police following a security check. Or perhaps
grandads old gun is no longer safe to use but kept for sentimental reasons and therefore
of no concern for the registry.
The fact is that ANY and ALL guns that you possess need to be registered with the
Firearm Safety Authority, unless it is a pre 1899 non-centre fire antique, under current
law, regardless of any details you may have provided to police in the past.
You can find out more here: https://www.firearmssafetyauthority.govt.nz
The problem with the registry is it has already been breached multiple times. The NZ Police & NZ Government will be providing criminals, who run NZ unchecked, access to all my data. This gives gang's a shopping list and puts my family at risk. Feckless boffins don't get the right to put my family at risk. I am not meeting any of the triggering criteria ( purchase or sale) and will hold out on this added risk to my wife & children for as long as possible. I suggest in the meantime the NZ Police focus on gang's and REAL crime rather than Nurses and Doctors who made a minor mistake or painted over rainbow crossings.
You have lost the…