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Watch live: Oral submissions on gun law reform legislation
Watch live: Oral submissions at Parliament on gun law reform legislation
A parliamentary select committee is hearing oral submissions on the government's fast-tracked firearm law changes today.
Photo: RNZ / Ana Tovey
Watch the livestream
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The Finance and Expenditure Select Committee is expected to consider possible changes to the bill and report it back to Parliament on Monday.
Deputy Police Commissioner Mike Clement has already explained to the committee how the Christchurch mosque accused was able to buy his guns and magazines legally with his category A gun licence, and then bring them together to create an illegal combination.
He said the government's bill would make it a lot harder to convert one type of firearm into another.
He also said it would close a loophole in current law that allowed gun importers and owners make minor modifications to their firearms to prevent them from being categorised as military, and therefore restricted.
The committee's chairperson, Labour MP Michael Wood, said the committee would hear 15 oral submissions today and consider all the written submissions. The deadline for written submissions closed yesterday.
He said the vast majority of the 250,000 or so licensed firearm owners would not be impacted by the new legislation, as it specifically dealt with military-style assault weapons.
Yesterday gun owners expressed dismay the committee was allocating just one day to make oral submissions on the Arms (Prohibited Firearms, Magazines and Parts) Amendment Bill.
The committee requested oral submissions from "a representative group", but firearms owners and industry figures said the group would only represent a small number of people, given the short timeframe, which was unfair.
The government wants to pass the bill into law by Thursday next week.
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