The new Police firearms unit announced by Police Minister Hon Poto Williams is a far cry from the solution originally promised, and fails victims of the Christchurch terror attack, firearm license holders, and all New Zealanders, says COLFO.

The Government had promised in 2020 to create an independent firearms authority in the wake of a mass shooting enabled by Police who incorrectly granted a firearms license to the future terrorist. The announcement by press release last Friday afternoon was instead that administration would now just be arranged under a newly minted Police organizational division.

COLFO spokesperson Hugh Devereux-Mack says the decision let down everyone.

“The Government promised to make the public safer, but they’ve just allowed the Police to rebadge its existing paperwork system.

“The new unit is currently only a name and a newly appointed leader in a press release. We have not been given information about staffing, detailed roles or purpose. There’s nothing to give confidence that mistakes, delays and administrative over-reach won’t happen again.

“Those issues are continuing, with the licenses of gang members recently only revoked after a long delay.”

Devereux-Mack says the new unit is “the exact opposite” of what the Government previously said it would establish: an independent firearms authority, separated from the Police and Government, with a dedicated regulations structure outside of enforcement.[1]

“An independent regulations authority would have had the advantage of purpose-built resources, separation from the distractions and resource-diverting demands of enforcement, and fresh methods to keep guns out of the wrong hands and allowing them to stay in the right ones” said Devereux-Mack.

[1] https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/further-firearms-changes-signalled

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