Confirmation today: 51 people died and 250,000 New Zealanders had their way of life severely curtailed because of one mistake: Police failed to follow existing licensing laws.

The Council of Licenced Firearms Owners (COLFO) has today responded with anger at confirmation from sources inside Police that Brenton Tarrant was given a firearm licence without going through the required procedures.

COLFO spokesperson Nicole McKee says that the revelations in news media today are the start of the biggest scandal in the history of New Zealand Police – bigger even than the infamous Arthur Allan Thomas affair.

“51 people died and 250,000 New Zealanders had their way of life severely curtailed because of one mistake: Police failed to apply the existing licensing laws.

“Police were in front Jacinda Ardern within 24 hours in what now looks like an attempt to distract politicians and media from their direct responsibility; that starts unravelling now.

“Following the Christchurch shooting, the Police advised Cabinet and a Select Committee to change firearm laws, they took firearms from innocent and safe New Zealanders, and they claimed to the public they were making New Zealander safer.

“Yet all along, it was they who had made the fatal mistake.

“They have known, and never admitted, that the existing licensing and firearm laws were adequate, and it was they themselves who failed to apply it.

“In recent months they have had the gall to advise MPs against improvements to the Arms Bill, especially to remove administration of gun law from Police to a dedicated agency. That Bill is only on Parliament’s Order Paper because of opportunist Police advice to Cabinet. $150m, later, they’ve destroyed their relationship with firearms owners, and NZ’s great history of collaborative control of gun ownership, we now know it was not our licensing laws that were at fault.”

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