Report: Molenaar acted unreasonably

Jan Molenaar had respect for the law, says a friend.

Coroner David Crerar has called for a major review of the Arms Act, saying the current legislation is only complied with by honest people.

In his inquest into the deaths of senior policeman Len Snee and gunman Len Molenaar, Mr Crerar said a number of the 17 firearms, many of them military style semi-automatics, that Molenaar had at his Napier home were acquired from illegal sources.

"Each of the suppliers to Jan Molenaar of these weapons shares a responsibility for the death of Constable Snee," Mr Crerar said.

"If those supplying firearms ascertained, as they were required to do, under the Arms Act, that Jan Molenaar held an appropriate firearms licence, this would have been conveyed to Police Intelligence and Constable Snee and his companions would have been warned of the danger Jan Molenaar presented."

Mr Crerar said there were deficiencies in the Arms Act and its enforcement.

"The policy of tracking MSSAs (military style semi-automatic firearms) and confirming the type of firearm that is an MSSA must be looked at again."

The 1997 report by Justice Thomas Thorp which called for restrictions of legal gun ownership and requiring that all guns be registered may have to be revisited, Mr Crerar said.

A bill was presented to Parliament incorporating Justice Thorp's recommendations but was withdrawn due to the weight of opposition at select committee hearings.

"At present the Arms Act is only complied with by honest people," Mr Crerar said.

The review was one of four recommendations he made.

He called for the rollout of police digital radios to be expedited. He had heard that the police officers involved in the search at Molenaar's house did not advise their location as required and that there was a generally a reservation in communicating on what were effectively open radio channels in case police safety was compromised.

"Now that appropriate technology exists our police ought never to be put in the situation of hesitating to use an unsecure channel," Mr Crerar said.

He also recommended: prompt attention be given to review and simplify Police General Instructions; and ugrading the procedures to execute all search warrants so that all supervisors are aware of warrants, adequate numbers of officers attend the searches, improved equipment is available and appropriate training in risk assessment is given.

Police said today they were acting on all the recommendations.

They would shortly be recommending policy changes on the Arms Act and the rollout of digital radios had begun.

- NZPA