A participant at a competition hosted by the Whangārei Pistol Club waits for the buzzer before taking his shot. Photo / Michael Cunningham
A participant at a competition hosted by the Whangārei Pistol Club waits for the buzzer before taking his shot. Photo / Michael Cunningham
Opinion by Michael Dowling
OPINION
The Police Association believes that fees for licensed firearm owners should significantly increase. It is my belief that this poses a risk to frontline police officers.
The highest fees proposed, which the association has called a “reasonable proposition”, would hike fees by more than 400 per cent.
Licensed firearmowners realise fees must increase. They have not risen in more than 20 years.
We have two major objections; these fees are not based on real costs, and high fees will not make New Zealand a safer place.
The costs claimed have been invented and advanced without evidence. We estimate that if they were accurate, the rate being charged by police for the administrative time is at least $120 per hour for each police constable.
The actual rate, based on salaries, is $27.03. So that would mean a profit per renewed licence of more than $700.
Let’s be frank, the majority of licensed firearm owners resent paying fees for numerous new initiatives introduced over the last few years to restrict and monitor New Zealand’s licensed firearm-owning community.
Armed police watch as firearm owners arrive to hand in their prohibited firearms during a buy-back amnesty event at Mt Smart Stadium in Auckland. Photo / Brett Phibbs
These are not initiatives that help licensed firearm owners, but we are expected to pay for them.
Worse, these are not initiatives that have made, or will make, New Zealanders safer – but we are expected to pay for them.
Worse still for police at the frontline, none of these initiatives have made them safer.
In fact, Police Association president Chris Cahill said in March that firearms violence had “certainly” increased.
In Auckland alone during the 12 months to August 2022, police attended 4 per cent more jobs where guns were involved than in the previous 12 months, and there was a 74 per cent increase in injuries.
The 2021/2022 annual police report stated that “while violence among organised crime groups is not new, the proliferation of firearms is an increasing trend. Firearms are now commonplace in the organised crime environment.”
Members of the police armed offenders squad outside an address in Dunedin on April 10, 2023 after shots were fired. Photo / Gerard O'Brien, Otago Daily Times
In other words, there has been no safety improvement from these initiatives aimed at licensed firearm owners. This is because firearm violence carried out by organised criminals has very little to do with licensed firearm owners.
What the new regulations have done is push licensed firearm owners away from legal ownership. The fees, scrutiny, and blame-game policies are generating resentment among some licensed firearm owners.
Little by little, some adjust their behaviour to work around rules. Some undoubtedly now break rules.
That’s not to say those people are justified in abandoning the law. They are not. But this risk has been known by police HQ for some time.
Police top brass identified that rapid and severe changes to firearm legislation lose more firearms to the grey market, which is where firearms are illegally held by ordinary citizens who have no intention of criminal use.
In a briefing to the Police Minister in January, police admitted that “around 40 per cent of licence holders did not renew their licence when the 10-year licence was introduced to replace lifetime licences. An unknown number of them unlawfully retained firearms.”
Once firearms are in the grey market, they either stay there, or move to the black market via theft or illicit purchase, where they become dangerous. They don’t come back.
Firearms held by people the police do not know about are infinitely more dangerous than firearms held by licensed owners police are aware of.
In relation to the newly proposed fee increase, police state, “If firearms licence fees are raised significantly before completion of the arms registry, there may be an increased risk of licence holders retaining firearms without renewing their licence.”
Faced with the most significant addition to firearm laws in a long time, more licensed firearm owners are turning off the system. Even if just 10 per cent of licence holders each leave one firearm off the list, that’s 25,000 firearms lost to the grey market.
Michael Dowling.
With firearm crime rates hitting new highs, the reality becomes clear.
Hammering down on firearm owners is not cutting down the number of illicit firearms in this country. It is cutting down the number of legally held ones.
Our police are facing an increasingly dangerous frontline of firearm crime.
For the sake of our Kiwi officers on the beat around New Zealand, it’s time to realise that this approach is not working.
Regulations affecting licensed firearm owners need to be stopped.
The community is still grappling with the new regulations for firearm clubs and ranges, which came into force the same month that consultation opened for the proposed licence fee increases.
By going with the lowest fee option proposed, Police can minimise the risk of licenses dropping off and firearms disappearing from radar.
Police officers and the New Zealand public will be safer for it.
- Michael Dowling is chairman of the Council of Licensed Firearm Owners.
