NZ firearm laws
An Act party Survey of licensed firearm owners (LFO's) collected from the ACT party Fair Firearms Law questionnaire reported a dismal score for NZ police handling of LFO's at 1.5 / 10 reflecting the deep set of police created systemic failures summarized here.In court, Colfo's lawyer Jack Hodder Kings Council said gun and ammunition owners' property rights had been "extinguished".
"All the property rights of value are gone."
"Law experts and gun owners are genuinely concerned over police use of warrant less search powers.
On New Year's Eve, police used the Search and Surveillance Act to conduct a warrant-less search of the Christchurch home of an anti-government, pro-gun pastor Carl Bromley to seize his gun and ammunition. Police said they had received concerns about a person’s well being.
With no warrant required by using section 18 of the act, officers “ransacked” his home and took his rifle, 500 rounds of ammunition and firearms parts. Bromley has not yet received his gun back from police.
Bromley said he had made no threat with his firearms, felt police violated his privacy and were overly forceful. He questioned whether the search was lawful.
In September, 81-year-old antique gun collector Robert Keenan had 110 guns confiscated along with his licence after police suspected he was supplying guns to gang members.
Before Christmas police wrote to Keenan's lawyer confirming he was not a threat and that he could have his guns back, but said they were concerned his home could be targeted by organised criminal gangs.
But Keenan had died, never knowing his license was being returned.
Keenan’s lawyer, firearms specialist Nicholas Taylor, said he had submitted legal letters for at least 12 firearms license owners after similar raids over the last year, winning the return of weapons for each because there were no legal grounds to remove them.
Taylor said many of the police searches were of elderly men, who lived alone, and he believed it was a trend.
A police spokesperson said: “I can tell you definitively that police do not have a policy targeting older gun owners.”
Taylor said he wanted an independent authority to investigate which gun owners warranted home searches by police, as such raids could amount to a breach of privacy and the Bill of Rights.
“Police are not particularly great administrators, and why should they be. We need an independent authority overlooking these.”
The Search and Surveillance Act 2012 allows police to conduct warrant-less searches if they suspect a gun license owner is of danger to themselves or the community.
A police officer in charge of a search can seek permission from an issuing officer either in person, over the phone, or by email.
An issuing officer is authorized by the attorney-general, who can approve any Justice of the Peace, community magistrate, registrar, deputy registrar or other person to act as an issuing officer.
The law allows police to move quickly and initiate and conduct such searches without the oversight of the court.
Christchurch criminal lawyer Anselm Williams said firearms law changes had not made it easier for police to conduct warrant-less searches, but police were taking more interest in gun owners since the 2019 terror attack.
“There is no requirement that the court even know that a search is going to be conducted or has been conducted.”
These powers mean there was risk of putting fit gun owners through unlawful property searches or firearms confiscations, he said.
While police needed to be allowed to do their job, the public also needed to be satisfied they were doing it properly and within the law, he said.
“In cases where a search has been conducted unlawfully, those involved should be held to account.”
There are about 250,000 firearms licensed gun owners in New Zealand. To get a license, Kiwis need to go through police interviewing, gain references and be determined as fit to possess firearms.
The Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Christchurch mosque attacks found police had not conducted these in full on the terrorist who killed 51 people.
Superintendent John Price says since the 2019 terror attacks, police have conducted more home searches for prohibited guns.
Canterbury district Superintendent John Price agreed firearms searches had increased.
“The environment that we operate in since March 15 has been heightened. It has changed drastically.
“What we know is if someone had an ideology or a view or opinion on something like March 15, it just escalates – it is like cream rising to the top.”
ACT Party justice spokeswoman Nicole McKee said all gun owners were being treated like “violent gang thugs or ... potential terrorists”.
McKee said cases like Keenan’s were not uncommon and police needed to be careful not to overstep their jurisdiction.
“Yes, we need to make sure firearms are in the hands of fit and proper people, but we need to make sure that power is not being abused.”
Well before the mosque attack, the home of journalist and author of Dirty Politics Nicky Hager was raided by police as part of an investigation into his sources. In 2018, police apologized and acknowledged they breached his rights.
Hager, who is not a gun owner, believed police were out of their depth and the search was a waste of time.
“They took it on like they were investigating a P (methamphetamine) raid, someone selling P.”
Police admitted they inappropriately obtained Hager’s banking information, and that they obtained a search warrant despite him not being “a suspect of any offending”.
Hager said the house search was unpleasant for him and his family, with his daughter having to be accompanied by a female officer to get changed in her bedroom.
“They were doing a drug raid, on territory to do with democracy and rights, that they just weren’t equipped for. It was over the top.”
Former New Zealand Herald and Stuff columnist Rachel Stewart found herself on the wrong side of the new gun laws when in June her .22 rifle was confiscated following a Tweet she made.
Police went to her home without a warrant and handed her documentation telling her she was unfit to hold a license, confiscating her gun and ammunition.
Police cited a specific tweet, as well as “consistent Twitter posts in which you demonstrate a tendency to exhibit hatred towards the transgender community”.
Stewart said the confiscation came six weeks after the Tweet and showed no urgency.
“How much of a threat was I if they waited that long to confiscate my firearms?”
After making a legal submission her firearms license was posted back a few weeks later."
Following quote is an excerpt from a police statement that was used as the sole basis for suspension of a licensed firearm owner's license, a law abiding citizen holding a pilot's license. The ammunition, parts and firearms were properly stored as prescribed within the storage and transportation of firearms and ammunition guide and approved by previous police vetting and according to three witnesses was locked.
Police adamantly ignored facts and claimed they relied on the following policeman's statement as expertise; “I am not familiar with the requirements around storage of firearms however this did not appear to be adequate.”
I've been shown emails between the Firearms Safety Authority and an Officer of the New Zealand Army applying for a renewal of his firearms licence.
The applicant was told that, because he has spent more than six months in Afghanistan in the last ten years, he needs a criminal record check from the local Afghan authorities.
The incredulous applicant had to explain to the FSA that he was in Afghanistan serving Her Majesty in hostilities between New Zealand’s armed forces and the Taliban.
The Taliban, being the current authority in Afghanistan, would be the same group from whom he would now have to request a positive reference.
Experiences like this are exactly why licenced firearms owners have become fed up with the way Police exercise their powers through the FSA.
Veterans often want to maintain their interest in and skills with firearms after leaving the armed forces. But they’ve told me they are often treated with suspicion by the Police, as if they are all unstable and PTSD-addled. This is an utterly disrespectful way to treat those who fought for peace overseas.
ACT’s coalition commitment secured a transfer of responsibility for the FSA from Police to another department – work that Firearms Minister Nicole McKee is now progressing."
ACT Party policy election claims;
ACT has always stood up for LFOs and always promised that any policy would include thorough consultation with the LFO community. You can make your voice heard and provide feedback by emailing firearmspolicy@act.org.nz.
Some highlights of ACT’s policy include:
• Creating a separate, truly independent Firearms Safety Authority
for licensing administration
• Scrapping the firearms
registry
• Introducing a three-tier licensing system which recognizes that all firearms pose a threat in the wrong hands, and
that licensing the individual is the key to preventing misuse. This
system will adopt a risk mitigation approach without outright banning
possession of semi-automatics.
• Instant license disqualification
for gang membership
• Recognizing overseas offenses in the vetting
process.
The full policy can be viewed here.
As per the abuse examples described NZ police tend to extend restrictions toward abiding LFO's where police patently lack requisite training and are keen to exert their fertile imaginations, abundant time, tax funded resources available and no care, all while avoiding confrontations with Gang patches as per police representive Chris Cahill's statement; “outside of Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, there’d be very few police districts that would have enough staff to enforce the new rules on a group of gang members in patches.”
Take the law abiding guns and thow them into the crushers and avoid the gang patches is the police rep's fervent message.
Police use the new ad hoc gang assembly laws for lawfare which is actually illegal according to the present bill of rights against groups of more than five, shooting clubs and to shut down freedom of speech such as Destiny Church on a bike ride to telegraph Brian Tamaki's opinions that don't mesh with a police version resulting in ad hoc raids by cops whom have no memory regarding actual law as per the iterated examples and the prosecutions of award winning journalists whom are simply publishing established facts police don't like.
Luxon commented in the news on March the 15 "NZ should be more inclusive".
McCahill from the police union has been complaining about ACT's McKee recently as she attends to correcting the clearly hopeless arms act. He clearly is living within the same police bubble that creates a score of 1.5.
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