Articles & Information regarding the effect of NZ Politics on shooters

A Significant Distortion of the Truth

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Recent statements attributed to the Commissioner of Police, Andrew Coster, have repeated previous allegations from police that gangs acquire their firearms from licensed firearms owners. That is a significant distortion of the truth and by implication Coster maligns a quarter of a million carefully and properly vetted New Zealanders.

The Commissioner very conveniently fails to mention that 12 gang members who had “wrongly” been issued with firearms licenses were the conduit to gangs for a large number of firearms. Wrong, because no member of a gang would meet the “fit and proper” criteria required to hold a firearms license. If they had been issued with licenses, then those licenses should have been revoked. That would have been logical and easy. Police have a list of gang members and they have a list of licensed firearms owners so a simple comparison of the two lists for match ups would have not only been obvious but easy to do. Clearly, that has not been done.

It is known that some of that 12 bought up large in order to supply guns to their gang associates, so it is easy to see how police can say “hand on heart” that the gangs are getting their guns from licensed firearms owners. However, the reality is quite different and it is extremely disappointing that our New Zealand police lacked the integrity to acknowledge the truth.

This situation not only offends the properly vetted firearms owners, it begs the question of why those 12 firearms licenses were ever issued in the first instance and more importantly why they remained valid and were not revoked. One has to question police administration efficiency.

In this regard, we are reminded that the Royal Commission held that police failings in issuing the Mosque shooter Tarrant with a firearms license also emanated from sloppy police work. These twelve gang related license holders seem to be yet another example of poor police vetting?

To further illustrate the falsehood of the Commissioner’s claims we obtained the following data for the most recent 10 years through Official Information Act enquiries to police:

1. An annual average of only 9 holders of a firearm license have been prosecuted for supplying firearms to unlicensed people (not necessarily or exclusively gang members). Police and/or Police Association media statements suggest a much greater number.

2. Annually an average of 188 license holders report a burglary where firearms are taken. (The number shows a slight increase in the most recent 5 years). Police and/or Police Association statements do not usually state numbers but they imply a much larger number.

3. The total number of firearms reported stolen from license holders average 567 per year. Yet an earlier OIA response states police seize some 1300 unlawfully held guns each year. This clearly rebuts Commissioner Coster’s claim that gangs get their guns from licensed firearms owners. We have always been of the opinion that gangs import guns along with their narcotics imports.

4. An average figure for firearms reported stolen that are recovered is 32 per year. (one is tempted to ask how effective NZ Police are; of course, we do sympathise with police on this aspect as the first thing that a gang member will do is a make a 5 second pass across the stolen firearm with an angle grinder to remove serial numbers).

As an aside, we point out that simple act with a grinder makes a mockery of the police “justification” for the new Firearms Register to be implemented in two years time.

5. On average 3 firearms are reported lost each year, although it should be noted that this number is declining. Very few of these appear to be recovered (4 in 11 years).’ We would make two observations on this.

(a) In our view this small number is a recognition that firearms are treated by licensed firearms owners as valuable assets (or even treasured possessions)

(b) It is highly likely that losses could be by hunters in difficult and/or dangerous terrain

6. Police themselves lose on average 2 firearms of their own each year due to loss or theft (interestingly their OIA response on this point failed to include the 11 firearms stolen from Palmerston North police station last year nor those stolen from police cars). The comparison is stark. Licenced Firearms Owners loss as a percentage of the total owned is 0.00013% and the police loss is 0.033% i.e police are 300 times more likely to lose a firearm than a licensed firearms owner.

In Summary

  • Just 0.0035% of the total population of licensed firearm owners are prosecuted for supplying guns to unlicensed people.
  • Less than half the guns seized by police are those stolen from licensed owners so where do the bulk come from?
  • It is our contention that most guns circulating in the underworld (250,000 estimate) are those accumulated over many years, (“bring backs” from two world wars and other conflicts) along with more modern firearms smuggled into the country with $millions of drugs.
  • Added to this police have provided 12 known gang associates with a firearm license so it is no wonder that criminals have ready access to firearms.

A Significant Distortion of the Truth

Police Minister doesn’t know the law she voted for.

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A police officer is shot in Hamilton and in a media release commenting on that, the Police Minister has said “Cabinet was “working on the process” of getting a gun register in place to stop these weapons getting into the wrong hands”, Williams said. “We will make decisions on that as soon as we can.”

Incredible! Is it possible she doesn’t remember voting into law on June 18th last year legislation to establish a Register of Firearms?

AND just how is a register going to stop “weapons getting into the wrong hands” ? Could she tell us just how will the fact a firearm is registered stop it from being stolen?

AND what use will a register be anyway when Police’s own figures show that it is common for the serial numbers to be ground off stolen firearms.

AND does she not know that gangs import guns along with narcotics? Perhaps she thinks the gangs will register these illegal imports?

AND does she know that gangs and now making their own guns? Will they apply serial numbers and register those guns?

Really Minister!

Wokester or Toothless?

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A toothless Commissioner?

National MP Simon Bridges has drawn a lot of political fire about calling the Commissioner of Police Andrew Coster, a “wokester” but others either agree or would even take it further.  Neville Dodd, president of the Sporting Shooters Assn of New Zealand, SSANZ, says sadly the Commissioner is coming across as toothless. The gangs must be relishing his recent statements.

“We have seen yet another shooting, this time in the streets of Papatoetoe, that unfortunately resulted in the Police having to take a life because the victim refused to lower his shotgun. In my view the Police involved had no other option, Dodd said, but police officers should not be put in situations like that.”

Dodd says he totally agrees with Police superintendent Jill Rogers when she said the worst possible decision a police officer could make was to take some-one’s life, but he says until the New Zealand gang & drug scene is cleaned up such shootings seem inevitable.

“It appears the victim in this case was under the influence of narcotics and seemingly had no idea what he was doing. A case of a drug habit costing him his life.”

Criminals to blame
Dodd adds that he personally does not blame the addicts, he blames the criminal underbelly for pushing the drugs and the Police for having let the gang’s drug peddlers gain an upper hand. “If the methamphetamine is as bad as we are led to believe, it is little wonder that users feel they can take on anyone, even Police with guns.” To be fair the problem of a combination of porous borders, an obscenely lucrative trade in narcotics and so many illicit guns under gang control, can not be controlled by Police alone. Parliament must step in.

The porosity of our borders is a joke and drugs and guns can flow in freely; invariably under gang control.”

“I know it is a big call, but the Police seem to be unable to get the situation under control.”

A good start, but…
He says he applauds the action already taken with raids and confiscation of guns and assets, but he says, that will never be enough. “It is like the mythical dragon that grows two heads every time you cut one head off, What New Zealanders want and deserve, is to feel safe and to know that they are not going to end up in some sort of warfare and risking being shot because of it.”

Much more to do…
He says wokester or toothless, either word points to the same thing: the Police are far from controlling serious crime in New Zealand and serious situations involving illegal firearms will continue until the problem is sorted.

Commissioner Coster should be asking his Minister, her colleagues the Minister of Customs and the Minister of Justice to introduce laws that will secure our borders and discourage criminal activity by gangs.

The Royal Commission of Inquiry – No Accountability

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Firearm owners have waited 19 months for the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Christchurch mosque attacks, in the firm belief that it would vindicate their view that they were in no way responsible for this heinous crime.  Regardless of the fact that our Security Intelligence services failed to detect any warning signs it is well known that the police failed in their duty to properly assess the suitability of Brenton Tarrant to own a firearm and went ahead and issued him with a firearm licence.

Multiple delays

Originally planned to be released in December 2019 the Commissioners were granted a number of time extensions, due to the numbers of people to be interviewed and also delays caused by Covid 19 lock down, with a final date of 26 November.

The inquiry’s report was provided to Internal Affairs Minister Jan Tinetti on 27 Novemberand was publicly released on December 8, after first being shared with victims’ families and political party leaders.

Evidence suppressed

Many firearm owners were shocked and angered to learn that:

• Evidence given by ministers and public sector bosses to the Inquiry will be suppressed for 30 years.
• An interview with the Australian-born terrorist will never be released out of concern it could inspire and assist further attacks.
• A number of individuals involved in the inquiry would also have their identities suppressed, including the police officers who vetted Tarrant for his firearms licence and the people who provided references for him.

It seems that despite the 51 deaths no one is to be held accountable for the failings of state agencies that contributed to this tragedy.

Numerous Failures by Police

We finally got to see the report for ourselves on the 8th December and this is what we learned from Section 5:

• District firearms staff are given limited initial training and, in recent years, no ongoing training and current training standards are outdated and inconsistent across New Zealand Police.
• Licensing staff are not trained to go beyond what is in the Firearms Licence Vetting Guide.
• The unusual nature of the individual’s firearms licence application was not appreciated.
• The Dunedin Vetting Officer did not inquire of the individual how well he knew his referees
• The order of interviews did not follow the ordinary process where referees are interviewed before the applicant
• All of those we spoke to who engaged with this issue agreed that this level of interaction between the individual and gaming friend was insufficient to justify using them as a substitute for a near-relative referee. This included experienced members of New Zealand Police.
• We consider the standard licensing practice to which we have just referred is inappropriately limited
• We are of the view that the guidance given by New Zealand Police to licensing staff was inadequate, as was their training.

and finally and most important of all the Commission says as its final word on that section of their report:

“We find that New Zealand Police failed to meet required standards in the administration of the firearms licensing system.”


As our President Neville Dodd said in a press release “Clearly the responsibility for the dreadful atrocity rests with police for their incompetence in issuing Tarrant a licence.”

Obviously we are pleased that the Prime Minister and Commissioner of Police apologised for these failures to the victims and their families, but note there was no apology forthcoming for the unnecessary victimisation of the firearm community.

 

NZ government’s impulsive firearm confiscation an unnecessary waste of taxpayer $

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A waste & an injustice

Sporting Shooters Association President Neville Dodd says “The release of the Royal Commission report on the Christchurch Mosque atrocity proves very clearly that the government’s impulsive response of firearm confiscation was an unnecessary waste of taxpayer dollars and a gross injustice to the 248,764 properly vetted firearms licence holders, who have been vilified and victimized by government and by police.”

“If only the Government had the common sense to wait for the Royal Commission’s report or at least listened to us they would have known that the atrocity was not a failure of the legislation but rather of the police administration of that legislation” he said.

Police administrative failures

Examples of this are scattered right through the Commission’s report but particularly in Part 5 where the Commission explicitly says:

⦁ District firearms staff are given limited initial training and, in recent years, no ongoing training and current training standards are outdated and inconsistent across New Zealand Police.
⦁ Licensing staff are not trained to go beyond what is in the Firearms Licence Vetting Guide.
⦁ The unusual nature of the individual’s firearms licence application was not appreciated.
⦁ The Dunedin Vetting Officer did not inquire of the individual how well he knew his referees
⦁ The order of interviews did not follow the ordinary process where referees are interviewed before the applicant
⦁ All of those we spoke to who engaged with this issue agreed that this level of interaction between the individual and gaming friend was insufficient to justify using them as a substitute for a near-relative referee. This included experienced members of New Zealand Police.
⦁ We consider the standard licensing practice to which we have just referred is inappropriately limited
⦁ We are of the view that the guidance given by New Zealand Police to licensing staff was inadequate, as was their training.

… and finally and most important of all, the Commission says as its final word on that section of their report:

“We find that New Zealand Police failed to meet required standards in the administration of  the firearms licensing system.”

Who’s responsible?

Clearly the responsibility for the dreadful atrocity rests with police for their incompetence in issuing Tarrant a licence, Dodd says.

Royal Commission shows Arms Act changes driven by politics

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The Sporting Shooters Association of New Zealand (SSANZ) has today criticised the Prime Minister for attempting to ‘repackage’ the findings in the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Christchurch Mosque shooting.

Government Moved Too Quickly

SSANZ President Neville Dodd says the Prime Minister has tried to move too quickly onto the Government prepared response, and not allow the nation to consider the implications of the report.
“We, the nation, ought to consider this report of over 700 pages in our own time, and not be rushed by the Government into its pre-planned kneejerk response.
“They did that to us following the shooting, banning firearms and changing laws, that we can now see were not justified by the shooting itself.”

Police Failed

Dodd said the Prime Minister has tried to rush everyone past the very critical finding that Police failed to follow the legislated requirement to ensure a firearm licence holder is fit and proper.
“That is something worth considering at length, because the Government has just spent almost two years pretending that didn’t happen.
“Instead, the Government legislated away the property rights of thousands of licenced firearm owners across New Zealand with changes to the Arms Act.”

Government didn’t have evidence to act

He says the Prime Minister’s statement that “today we have the answers” was an admission that the Government did not have the evidence and answers when it went on a legislative rampage against law abiding firearm owners.
“Today’s report indicates that Tarrant would have committed an atrocity eventually, even if Police had not incorrectly provided him with a firearms licence. If that is the case, the banning of certain ammunition and forced sales of firearms was a political project completely disconnected from the terrorist and his actions.”
Dodd says the then-Minister of Police Stuart Nash stoked fears and attacked the licenced firearm community.

Preached unity while vilifying firearm owners

“Following the terrorist’s attack, this government preached unity but used comments to the media to vilify firearm owners. Their changes to gun laws have been nothing short of a political tool to reduce our community’s numbers and disrupt our sports and hobbies of choice.
“The findings of the Royal Commission confirm what firearms owners have long known: changes to the Arms Act would not have stopped Tarrant from committing his crime.”

Licensed firearms owners are throwing their support behind ACT to get transparency over gun laws.

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ACT is calling on the Government to release the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Christchurch terrorist attacks next week.

Sporting Shooters Assn New Zealand [SSANZ] President, Neville Dodd, says “We understand that the report has been finished, so why are the Government looking to delay presenting it?”

It is understood that The Inquiries Act says the report must be presented to Parliament by the Internal Affairs Minister as soon as possible, so SSANZ are asking for an explanation for any delays.

“We are aware that recent shooting incidents involving non-licensed people have highlighted a desire for reform, but it is the lawful shooters who are being used as a scapegoat”

New Act MP Nicole McKee, says “After being targeted by the Government in the wake of 15 March, lawful firearms owners in particular deserve to see the report.”

She adds “Firearms reform must now start again based on the findings of the Royal Commission.”

SSANZ totally agrees with her, reiterating that the authorities and the Government should be targeting the people who are not law abiding, not the law-abiding ones.

“We are pleased to see that the Police are making progress within the ranks of groups who own illegal weapons, and hopefully stopping the black market sales of guns and ammunition, but that will take time” says Dodd.

Both SSANZ and ACT agree, the solution to the problem begins with the most open and transparent government telling us how 15 March happened.