PRESS RELEASE

Immediate

Reclassification of ‘Sporting guns’ to military style.

The New Zealand Council of Licensed Firearm Owners, (COLFO), which represents the interests of legitimate firearms owners and is the largest voluntary shooting-related organisation in New Zealand was surprised and somewhat dismayed to hear on June 9th that the Police have decided to recategorise a selection of firearms that have been recognised and acknowledged as meeting category ‘A’ requirements since 1984, to military semi automatic category ‘E’ firearms (MSSAs). These (A category) are firearms that for the last 25 years (since 1984) the Police have had no problem in allowing to enter the country. Note that from 1984 to 1992 all rifles were treated equally with no restrictions on purchase; from 1992 some became E category and required the E endorsement.

This decision will impact on thousands of law-abiding firearm owners throughout New Zealand in several ways. The first impact will be the fact that what has been a legitimate Cat ‘A’ firearm will now become a Cat ‘E’ and thus make the possessor of such a firearm to be in illegal possession. Law-abiding owners who currently have only an A licence will need to apply for an ‘E’endorsement at a cost of $200, undergo a more stringent vetting process, and have to purchase a suitable security cabinet at about $800 in order register the firearm. Failing this they will have to sell it at whatever the new market rate is.

To make such a change after 25 years appears to be pointless to COLFO, especially when, in announcing this move, Police Superintendent Tony McLeod states that he did not know how many owners or firearms were affected! Superintendant McLeod then states that there was “a definite risk” that some owners may not come forward because of the higher cost of the E-class licence. This is the same person who said five weeks ago (in relation to the Napier incident), “Nearly 50,000 people had not responded by the end of a campaign targeting lifetime gun licence holders to renew or surrender their weapons in 2002.”

Beyond this announcement which has now reached virtually all legal groups but possibly not all legal owners, the police have not said how this change is to be implemented and admitted today on radio that they don’t yet know.

COLFO as its name implies supports legal process regarding firearms and encourages all owners to obey the laws. In this case how are owners to proceed? COLFO asks is this effective law? In light of the above comments how can the police possibly go about identifying licence holders in possession of these newly defined firearms? How is all this to be carried out, when the police admit they don’t know? All this is going to do is throw confusion amongst law abiding firearm licence holders as it will only target them and not the possessors of illegally obtained firearms such as those in the possession of Jan Mollenaar.

COLFO is always available for consultation and is always prepared to sit around the table and work with anyone to make good workable legislation when it comes to firearms laws. We now invite the police to sit down with COLFO very soon to discuss the future of this change and its implications. This will help relieve the anxiety many up-to-now legitimate owners are feeling

ENDS

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