Source: COLFO Media Release 28 November 2024
The Council of Licenced Firearms Owners (COLFO) is horrified at news that a police officer allegedly hacked the firearm register to hide his firearm purchases by assigning ownership to innocent licensed firearm owners.
The officer is alleged to have illegally acquired firearms and hidden the purchases by falsely registering them against the names of other people, with the intention of deceiving the firearm vendors and Te Tari Pūreke Firearms Safety Authority. It is also alleged he used Police computer systems for non-work-related reasons.
In a summary just released, the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) concluded there was sufficient evidence upon which Police could consider charging the officer in respect of both allegations, and that the public interest favoured prosecution.
COLFO Spokesperson Hugh Devereux-Mack says the incident reveals that “the firearm register is the bureaucratic equivalent of a $10 million dollar road cone.”
“Fancy IT systems look great for photo-ops and press conferences, but do not stop crimes from happening in the real world.”
Hugh Devereux-Mack says it is another blow against the expensive firearm register that Angela Brazier of the Firearms Safety Authority has repeatedly claimed is well protected.
“This is not an impenetrable fortress of information that keeps firearm owners and New Zealanders safe – it is a depository of info people can steal and use nefariously, as in this case,” says Hugh Devereux- Mack.
“Police Minister Mark Mitchell and Prime Minister Luxon need to take the review of the firearms registry seriously and listen to the concerns of firearm owners, because we warned you this would happen.”
COLFO is particularly aggrieved that the internal Police investigation found no wrongdoing on the part of the officer, before the IPCA got involved.
“These incidents, and the subsequent lack of Police culpability, embed the ‘us vs them’ mentality which is unfortunately now a common feeling between firearms owners and Police in this country.”
“Repairing that relationship should be the utmost priority of Police and the Firearms Safety Authority, because of the increased public safety that comes from working together,” says Hugh Devereux-Mack.
“Instead, they continue to treat law-abiding citizens as criminals worthy of a $10 million dollar watchlist,”he added.
Hugh Devereaux-Mack
Hugh Devereaux-Mack
Thank goodness – on behalf of the lawful firearm owning public – for COLFO and Hugh Devereaux-Mack’s endeavours on our behalf. As for the Keystone Cops, words fail me!
The danger of this firearms register is that our personal information will no longer be secure or private.
The details of who has what firearms and where they store them will no longer be private or confidential.
That violation of our personal privacy and property rights is intended so that government authorities can (and will) legislate the prohibition of owning specific types of firearms and know where to find and confiscate them in the future.
That future prohibition and confiscation might be acceptable but there is also the ever present danger that people with criminal intentions will gain access to that personal information as this incident indicates.
Keeping our firearms and other property “securely stored”, to avoid theft and unauthorized access and use, is sensible and practical.
It can only be achieved by restricting the information, about what we have and where we keep it, to ourselves and a few other people that we know and can trust.
There is abundant evidence that we cannot trust or rely on politicians and government employees to protect our privacy, property and lives (even when they have the best of intentions).
In fact, these people more often want to violate our rights to privacy, property and personal liberty and justify it as being “good for us” whether we agree or not.
There is no reasonable doubt that this personal information, about what we have and where it is, will be accessed and used by people we do not know of for their own advantage and benefit and our detriment.
Registering our firearms or other personal property effectively prevents us from securely storing them, where they cannot be accessed without our knowledge or consent, and is a blatant violation of our privacy and property rights.
None of us know who will have legal access to this personal information or how they might use that access. We all know that digital information is always potentially insecure because access to the systems can be hacked or hijacked quite easily.
We can try to limit and secure the data in our own computers but we cannot control the access to government systems at all.
One of the considerations of complying with this register is the potential danger of allowing other people to have this personal and private information and use it against us.
Another serious consideration is what benefit we might get from sharing this important information with people we do not know or trust?
How does that make any of us “safer” when it prevents us from securely storing personal property so that other people cannot access it?
There are many more illegally owned firearms in New Zealand than anyone wants to admit and more now illegal semi-automatic center fire ones than before the confiscation.
An inevitable and undesired consequence of this register is that all firearms will not be registered because there is no benefit and a potential danger for the people that own them.
Some people will obediently comply.
Many might partially comply.
Others may decide to not comply and possibly stop renewing their licenses as well to avoid being in the system. That is not desirable.
Forcing this registration on responsible citizens, who have no intention or desire to ever harm other people, will not prevent the misuse of firearms by people who commit crimes.
It will, however, criminalize people that do not comply even though they would prefer to abide by the rules if they were FAIR AND REASONABLE.
It is not firearms that harm people or their property.
It is the anti-social intentions and actions of some people that causes this harm.
Those people will not comply with the laws and regulations and restricting our freedoms and property rights will not help to protect is from these criminals.
This register idea only serves and benefits the bureaucrats that want access to all of our personal information.
Sometimes, agreeing to share our personal information is voluntary and beneficial but in this case it is not.
Assessing and licensing “fit and proper” citizens to have legal access to firearms and other potentially harmful items (like motor vehicles) is sensible and desirable as long as denial of permission is supported by FACTUAL EVIDENCE of incompetence or malicious intentions.
Unfortunately, there is no practical, affordable or reliable way to prevent incompetent, irresponsible or malicious individuals from harming other people or their property.
This register initiative will achieve no real benefits.
It only diverts scarce resources from dealing with real criminals to forcing innocent people to comply with something they will not benefit from or agree with.
Licensed owners and users of firearms unanimously agree that they do not want to harm other people or be harmed by other people.
The are conscious of and consistently trying to comply with the simple rules of firearm safety.
They have no desire or intention to use their firearms as WEAPONS to harm other people. They mostly regard these items as SPORTS EQUIPMENT.
There is no factual evidence to support the assumption that forcing us to register this SPORTS EQUIPMENT will improve our safety or that of other people but it will definitely cost us all a great deal of money that could be more beneficially spent.
Some of this money and other resources would be much better spent on helping people to understand, learn and practice firearms safety and competence instead of violating their personal privacy and property rights.
I am totally in favour of fair and reasonable firearms legislation that encourages and enables responsible citizens to safely and competently own and use firearms for sport and recreation without endangering other people or their property.
There are very good reasons why Canada abandoned its Firearms Register .. with the support of frontline police .. after reportedly spending as much as $2 billion on it.
The public are being systematically lied to .. as to what a Firearms Register can achieve, the standards that can be maintained, and the outcomes it can deliver.
It’s farcical .. and it would be comical, too .. except it’s wasting far too many hard-earned taxpayer dollars, to be funny.
It’s an utter whitewash .. and needs to be abandoned ASAP, before more good (and scarce) taxpayer money is wasted.
I’m shocked, really shocked, well not that shocked. For all their posturing, it’s not the likes of Julie Anne Genter that have to live with the ever present possibility of a Mongrel Mob member breaking into your home to get the firearms that you, the lawful firearms owner, duly registered because the Firearms Register has become little more than a shopping list to be sold to the highest bidder. That said the officer in question certainly out did himself in the innovative way he corrupted the register! I wonder how much money he made? A sad state of affairs.