The firearms register will feature the licence holder's full name, date of birth and address, details of firearms, identifying markings and information on storage. Photo / file
The firearms register will feature the licence holder's full name, date of birth and address, details of firearms, identifying markings and information on storage. Photo / file
Editorial
EDITORIAL:
The firearms lobby was quick on the draw after this week's gun buy-back data breach.
The Council of Licensed Firearms Owners swiftly emphasised the bungle – which allowed a gun dealer to see all the details of those in the scheme – showed "precisely why a police firearm registercannot be trusted".
The Opposition, too, was keen to hammer the same point home.
National Party police spokesman Brett Hudson said the Government had failed to protect Kiwis' "private and very sensitive information".
"How can New Zealanders have confidence in the firearms register the Government is proposing when they can't even protect their personal details in their buy-back scheme?" Hudson asked.
No one in the Labour-led Coalition, nor the public, should give these hair-trigger reactions the time of day.
For starters, the German software company behind the buy-back website, SAP, has taken full responsibility for the privacy breach and said it occurred through "human error" at its end.
More importantly, as Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said when announcing the register, owning a firearm is a privilege, not a right.
The largely online database will be similar to the motor vehicle register operated by the New Zealand Transport Agency and will take five years to roll out. It will feature the licence holder's full name, date of birth and address, details of firearms, restricted weapons and prohibited magazines including identifying markings and information on storage. It will record all transfers, sales, purchases, imports and exports of firearms and other items.
The Arms Legislation Bill – which follows the Government's earlier ban on military-style semi-automatics after the Christchurch mosque shootings - will also improve the authorities' ability to monitor firearms lawfully entering and exiting the country and help combat organised crime, Ardern said in September.
It is difficult to fathom that it took 51 people being killed during the March terror attack for politicians to finally get the appetite for this level of gun-law reform. It is equally hard to believe that, for so long, police have had no means to track the number of firearms in New Zealand.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Police Minister Stuart Nash after the buyback privacy breach. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Gun crime is a growing pestilence in this country and has cost taxpayers more than $2.6 million in Auckland alone since 2015. The Herald revealed this week that a surge in firearms incidents across Auckland had resulted in nearly 150 gunshot victims being hospitalised with serious injuries over the past four years.
Simmering gang tensions and illicit drugs are responsible for much of the bloodshed, with more than a dozen shootings rocking South Auckland communities. Overnight Wednesday, a man was critically hurt after being shot in Māngere in another example of the shocking spike in gun-related violence.
Of course, licensed, law-abiding firearms owners are not responsible for this scourge on our society.
But these owners shouldn't be standing in the way of police attempts to track firearms in this country as part of ongoing efforts to keep them from the wrong hands.
