"The Sporting Shooters Association of New Zealand welcomes the appointment of Chris Hipkins as a replacement for the ineffective Poto Williams.” Says President Neville Dodd. “We hope he will deal openly and honestly with the concerns of law-abiding firearm owners so as to improve their trust and confidence in Police."

We remind him that all the measures taken so far by the government to address concerns over firearms in the community have only really affected lawful licensed firearm owners and has not addressed the illicit guns in the hands of gangs and criminals. We further point out that the Arms Act has now become so complex and bogged down in detail that firearm licence applications are taking up to 12 months for police to process. This is ridiculous.

As a concession to existing licence holders we ask him to grant licence extensions to those whose renewal applications are held up by Police within the new process. We also ask him to honour the promise made by the last government to create an independent firearms authority to administer the Arms Act and allow the police to concentrate on their core business of preventing and solving crime.

We wish Chris Hipkins every success in tackling the current gang violence in Auckland and the wave of youth crime around the country, acknowledging that these will not be solved over night.

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