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Source: ONE News -
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The government is moving to crack down on the use of
high-powered air rifles like the one used to kill undercover police
officer Don Wilkinson two years ago.
Police Minister Judith Collins says people will soon need a
licence to buy a modern air rifle, which have become criminals'
weapon of choice.
She made the comments on TVNZ's Q+A programme in an interview
with political editor Guyon Espiner.
They may be sold for recreational use, but modern air guns are
deadly. And soon you will need a firearms licence to buy one.
It will not apply to older-style spring loaded air guns or air guns powered by CO2 cartridges, BB guns or paintball guns.
"We're not talking about the BB guns that I was brought up with
on the farm and that many people have in their homes. We are
talking about the very high-powered pre-charged airguns like the
one that was used to kill Don Wilkinson," said Collins.
Collins said the change may only affect 30 to 50 air gun sales each
year but she believes even that would have an impact on reducing
gun crime.
"These sorts of guns have become the criminals' gun of choice, because they are so attainable and they are very, very powerful. But it will mean that some people ... like people who do Olympic target shooting, they will need to get a gun licence or they'll need to do their shooting at a gun club."
Collins said the high-powered air rifles are very expensive, at around $2,500, and not the sort people would buy to go out and shoot rabbits.
"The aim of any changes to firearms regulations should be to make it harder for criminals to get their hands on firearms while not penalising responsible, law abiding firearms users."
The government aims to bring in the change through an amendment to the arms order of 1984 and Collins said that could happen quite quickly and before the end of the year.
The arms order would ensure that these firearms can only be possessed by a person at least 16 years old and the holder of a firearms licence, or a person under the supervision of a licence holder.
The government is also looking to tighten sales of guns over the
internet, with closer scrutiny of who is actually buying the weapon
as is the case now in Australia.
"Actually having a licensed dealer having to cite the firearms
licence or an arms officer from the police, that's the sort of
thing we're looking at to make sure these weapons are being
properly sold to people who have licences," said Collins.
This change is likely to be done as an amendment to the Arms Act and would be subject to a longer timeframe.
Gun control advocates welcome the move but want the government to do more.
Green Party police spokesman Keith Locke wants to see all
firearms registered.
"We should go much further and require the registration of
individual firearms so that when the police roll up to an address
they have an idea of how many guns are registered to people
inside," he said.
That is something first recommended by the Thorp report back in 1992, but rejected by governments ever since.
Collins said the government would not be changing the firearms licensing system to register individual firearms.
She defended the current registration system which requires the owners of guns to be licensed, not the guns themselves. She said people misusing firearms for criminal purposes are not people with firearms licences.
"The vast majority of New Zealanders who have guns have them
legitimately and should be able to."
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Add a Comment:
Post new commentslothy said on 2010-07-30 @ 16:02 NZDT: Report abusive post
Sign, all guns in NZ used to have to be registered until some bright spark in power decided they could make more money by selling life time gun licenses, however that gravy train dried up so they made it every 10 years for a license, know they want to re-invent the wheel and go back to licensing the guns, our leaders are idiots, they need to grow some balls and look at real punishment for vio,lent crime not punish the good people again and again...
Andy83 said on 2010-07-25 @ 17:49 NZDT: Report abusive post
Keith Locke seems to live in his own little ideal world. A world where criminals register there guns, and leaving the Taliban be will be better for the people of Afghanistan. Come on Keith. Come live in the real world with the rest of society.
santa0007 said on 2010-07-25 @ 16:20 NZDT: Report abusive post
Your a bit slow Collins, what else do you so called responsibile MP'S do to earn money,how does this effect the treaty, you dont do many things & one of them is protect citizens from the govt. I have gun licenses for America/Australia/China & others so that makes me a what? national security risk,or perhaps I voted for another party now thats deserving what? prison.