23 June 2023
Media release The Council of Licensed Firearm Owners (COLFO)
The Council of Licensed Firearm Owners (COLFO) says licensed firearm owners are likely to wait the full five years before registering their firearms, believing the system will be closed or limited as they have been in other countries.
COLFO spokesperson Hugh Devereux-Mack says licensed firearm owners are free to make their own minds up about when to register their firearms but should be mindful of the ‘activation rules’ that can require an owner to register their firearms sooner.
“Licensed firearms owners have the full five years to register their firearms, and many are likely to put it off as long as possible.
“Some will be holding out for a new Government to repeal the registry; some will wait for the register to be revealed as ineffective, and others will hold off out of spite.
“The five years is helpful, because for antique collectors, museums, and theatrical armourers, who all hold many firearms, registration will be an arduous process.
“However, COLFO advises licensed owners to be mindful that certain actions will require them to register their firearms sooner than they might have liked,” says Devereux-Mack.
COLFO spokesperson Hugh Devereux-Mack
Licensed firearm owners will have 30 days to register all their firearms, if they:
· Apply for a license or endorsement
· Notify a change in license holder information
· Sell or supply an arms item
· Import or export an arms item
· Manufacture an arms item
· Modify a prohibited firearm to a non-prohibited firearm
· Notify loss or theft of an arms item
· Destroy an arms item
· From 24 June 2025: Purchase ammunition
Devereux-Mack says the conditions will likely cause some unintended consequences as people avoid registering.
“License holders may refrain from updating their addresses or contact details to avoid triggering the 30-day requirement to register, which will leave Police with even less accurate information than they had before the registry.
“People may not even report a stolen firearm to avoid the requirement to register others, which also leaves Police further in the dark about firearms possessed by criminals.
“From June 2025, firearm owners will be required to register their firearms if they purchase ammunition. To avoid this, many will bulk-buy ammo over the next two years while they can avoid registration.”
Devereux-Mack says Police must state which measurements they will use to indicate success of the register, so its effectiveness can be judged after the first few years of implementation, not just after ten years.
“The Government and Police have made bold claims for the register, saying it will make New Zealanders safer.
“Therefore it is reasonable that the measures for success would not be about outputs like the numbers of records, but impacts such as reduced firearm burglaries and firearm-related violence such as threatening and discharging, lower homicide and suicide rates, fewer seizures of illegally held firearms, and depowered gangs.
“Police must notify which combination of crime statistics it intends to use to measure success of the registry, so the public and news media can judge its efficacy and hold Police and Government to account.
“We must also expect of such critical information; accuracy of records at 100%, online uptime of 100%, and 0% leakage of data, or misuse of data.”
/ENDS
For further information contact COLFO Spokesperson: Hugh Devereux-Mack. 027 362 0853
Footnote:– COLFO added Police have stated that the registry is needed because the majority of firearms held by criminals are intentionally diverted by licensed firearm owners (also known as straw purchasing). According to available data, this is not true. Police have not supplied any new evidence to support the claim.
COLFO recently asked the Police for information on the number of seized firearms that have been traced to licensed firearm owners, after Police Association President Chris Cahill also claimed criminals sourced most of their firearms from licensed owners. Police said the request could not be fulfilled because they do not collect the data. Therefore, the Police do not have data to support what they are telling journalists. COLFO has complained to the Ombudsman.
Historic material provided by Police in response to OIA requests shows that only one effort has been made to track the source of firearms seized from criminals. That was a study of seized firearms from a 6-month period in 2015, which found only 10% came from licensed owners either through burglary (4%) or sourced from individuals illegally (6%).
Of course most people are not willing to register their firearms.
The reason for this is that the legislation has been imposed to discriminate unjustly against people that have not done anything wrong.
Licensed owners of firearms are a very responsible and law abiding community of people.
They have not been commiting crimes agaist other people and are not likely to do so either.
LFOs have complied with an increasingly unpleasant system of licensing because they do not want anyone to be harmed by the careless or intentional misuse of firearms.
The trust and cooperation that used to exist was destoyed after the Christchurch tragedy because innocent citizens were blamed for what they had not done and their personal property was confiscated by an unjustified “buy back”.
This discrinimation against people that have done nothing wrong is the basis for the new firearms regulations and the register that will criminalize people who are not dangerous to other people or their property.
How can legislation that is not necessary, prejudiced, discriminatory, excessively complicated, expensive to admninister and resented by the people who are supposed to comply every going to improve public safety?
How is diverting more police resources, from dealing with real criminals who harm us and our property to administering regulations that generate more revenue for the “police enterprise”by criminalizing people that do not harm us or our property, supposed to improve our public safety?
Forcing people to unwillingly register their personal property in a database managed by bureaucrats they do not trust is not likely to improve anyone’s safety.
Mutual respect and cooperation between responsible owners of firearms and the police would help to reduce gun related crimes but is not possible because of the political culture in our government and its many bureaucracies.
Responsible owners of firearms have a difficult choice to either accept the prejudiced, discriminatiory, excessive and expensive legislation that will almost certainly fail to have any real benefits or be criminalized for failing to properly comply.
We can only hope that a change in government after October will result in fair, reasonable and cost-effective firearms legislation that people will be willing to comply with.
We could help to achieve this by
voting for our local National Party candidate and
trusting ACT with our Party Vote
What are the cops up to? Fiddling with a firearm register which has been proven by Canada’s attempt to install one, to be a waste of time and money.
Meanwhile crime is rampant and increasing not just Auckland but in South Island.
Christopher Cahill, police association president, do you know of the famous quote “Nero fiddles while Rome burns”?
Most people realize that the real purpose of the firearms register is as a useful tax gathering mechanism and a means to compile a shopping list for eventual confiscation. The police have said it is free to register your guns but have not said how long it will remain free. When Plod finds out just how much this scheme will be costing for no actual benefit in public safety – the people who will register their guns are not and never have been the ones causing problems – watch how quickly they find the need to introduce a cost to register “in order to improve public safety.”
Had the experience this week if I didn’t replace the 10 shot plastic magazine I lost before today I would have had to register all my firearms before I could purchase it. B/S