Rise in gun crime despite government clampdown after terror attack
RNZ reports
The government’s clampdown on firearms and seizures of high-powered semi-automatic weapons has had no impact on a rise in gun crime and violence in New Zealand.
Today marks the second anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks, in which military style semi-automatic weapons, purchased legally, were used to gun down 51 innocent worshippers.
That sparked tougher gun laws and the much debated firearms buy-back.
But in 2020, gun crime hit a new peak.
Police figures show 2399 people were charged with 4542 firearm-related offences, nearly double that of a decade earlier.
In total, 1862 firearms were seized under sections 6 or 18 of the Search and Surveillance Act, more than double the 860 that were seized a decade earlier.
ACT MP Nicole McKee said the government had made the wrong moves when it came to firearms reform since the 15 March attack.
“What we’re looking at is a piece of rushed legislation, or two pieces of rushed legislation, that went through so fast that the unintended consequences of doing that are starting to be realised, and of course the effects that we’re seeing are a less safer community.”
McKee said licensed firearms owners felt alienated by the government’s moves to ban military style semi-automatic firearms, the type used in the 15 March terror attack.
She said gun owners had been made to feel like criminals and that had led to less safety around firearms than before the terror attack.
“I absolutely believe that. And my reasoning behind that is because of the confusion, the blame as well that was put on licence-holders,” McKee said.
“We had Minister Nash stand up and tell the country that if you don’t hand in your guns we’re going to come after you, so when people are still finding out later that they’ve got what is now a newly prohibited firearm, they’re now too scared to do anything with it.”
Hera Cook from Gun Control New Zealand said the laws had been a great success and will make New Zealand a far safer place.
She said they would make it virtually impossible for a mass shooting to take place in this country again.
Cook is not convinced that firearms crime is rising as much as the numbers would suggest, instead saying police data collection had improved.
But she admitted it was a possibility that there has been an increase in gun crime with the arrival of deportees from Australia.
“I think what’s probable is that both things are happening. What we’re seeing is that the 501s are bringing more organised crime into New Zealand,” Cook said.
“Police are combatting that and police seem to be being pretty effective. I think we as New Zealanders should feel really good about the fact that police are picking up a lot more gun offences.”
Sporting Shooters Association president Neville Dodd said there was no simple solution to the rise in firearms crime and in particular gang crime.
But Dodd said the police had lost a huge amount of trust from firearms owners over the past two years.
He said the police never admitted they should not have given the Christchurch terrorist a firearms licence in the first place, an error that the Royal Commission suggested could have prevented the attack from happening altogether.
“The thing that troubles me most is that police didn’t have the integrity to say right from the outset, ‘we stuffed up, this guy should never have got a licence’.”
Dodd said that had cost the police plenty of support.
“As a result, 241,900 New Zealanders who’ve been carefully vetted, unlike Tarrant, alienated, no longer support the police and that to me is the biggest tragedy of all because we had a very good rapport with police, and that’s gone.”
RNZ requested an interview with the police.
In a statement, police said there is a strong focus on stopping violence and the impact of organised crime groups and gangs, where a high number of the firearms incidents take place.
They said emphasis had been placed on disrupting the manufacture, modification and supply of firearms to these groups.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told Morning Report rising firearms crime since the Christchurch mosque attack strengthen resolve to introduce firearms reform.
“We do have an increasing issue with gun use, particularly amongst our organised criminals so for me that is more rationale for the kinds of legislation we already put in place,” Ardern said.
“That includes things like creating a gun register, which we continue work on in earnest, increasing penalties, as well as of course the buy-back.
“One of the things that we did hear from police at the time … was that guns were increasingly present for the police.
“So yes, we have removed a particular form of weapon from circulation. But that does not mean of course that there are not still weapons in use by gangs, or that they are not available.
“For me, it strengthens rationale for having that gun register, for increasing those penalties.”
Reducing gun crime would not come down to just the gun register, Ardern said.
“It’ll come to, for instance, the extra emphasis we’re putting into combatting organised crime … so it is going to come down to a number of measures, but we’re up against what has been a growth in a particular new gang that has come about as a result of deportations out of Australia.
“That has almost had a tit-for-tat result with our existing gangs in New Zealand with additional increase in recruitment there. These are things that are going to take some time to turn around.”
But Ardern said there had “for a long time” been a call for Parliament to make gun law reforms but there had been “political hesitance”.
The government had “never” attempted to alienate legitimate gun users, she said.
“What we have targeted is a specific type of weapon, for instance those military-style semi-automatics, which we see no good reason for in New Zealand, and of course those who choose to use weapons for illegal activity.
You would have to say she has a way with words.
Full of platitudes, unbelievably naive and totally lacking in logic and rational.
Of course its be nice to the bodies isn’t it.
And the police still have not admitted that they fucked up.
And byw the same select commitee cindy changed these laws and processes through had the likes of nicole mckee and others there that campaigned on closing the high capacity magazine loopholes but it fell on deaf ears as cahill and co were too tied up arguing about a small piece of plastic on pistol grip stocks!
Police never admit to doing anything wrong. It is part of their “culture”.
“Hera Cook from Gun Control New Zealand said the laws had been a great success and will make New Zealand a far safer place.
She said they would make it virtually impossible for a mass shooting to take place in this country again.”
Pfft
Virtually impossible in the mind of a unicorn believer is not the same as actually impossible in real life.
Does she not realise that a ‘mass shooting’ only needs one weapon used by one individual?
Hera Cook has obviously forgotten one of NZ’s worst mass shootings before Christchurch which was at Raurimu in the North Island. There the perp killed six people using a single barrel, single shot 12 bore. Hera Cook is an idiot completely blinded by her anti gun ignorance and as such she lacks any credibility.
There was the little matter of David Gray at Aramoana. 13 dead.
Weapons
.223-calibre Norinco Type 84s sporting rifle
7.62x39mm Norinco SKS semi-automatic rifle
.22-calibre Squires and Bingham Model 16 semi-automatic sporting rifle
.22-calibre Winchester Model 750 rifle with suppressor
.22-calibre Remington Nylon 66 semi-automatic rifle
Air rifle
Arson fire
Would he have killed fewer people without semi-autos?
Doubt it.
Snap, Harvey. I was just about to post this exact sentence. Who is this Hera Cook? The fact that such a fucking idiot can be allowed anywhere near the levers of gun control should have alarm bells ringing.
Hera cook, some fuckwit from otago uni that has a love for tramping but hated sharing backcountry huts with feral hunters and their firearms.
Hera cook is to firearms what souxie wiles is to covid just want attention and are total media whores
Am yet to hear the media question who is responsible for the law changes that allowed tarrant to get his licence so easily and forgo the usual vetting process.
Tarrant was one of the first few ppl to given a licence under a trial of the “new” system, i have several freinds who are FAL vetying officers that had technically been made redundant and given their notice of termination just amonth or so prior to the attacks.
Funnily enough within 5 days of tarrants attack all of them had their jobs reinstated and the new system got quietly scrapped, a few tried to ho to the media but they refused to listen and as a result most of NZ is in the dark about who allowed that piece of shit to get a licence so easily
Jacinda ardern you have the blood of those 51 dead ppl on your hands, that small firearms licence change that you were apart of and lead before you even became PM was what caused this, the fucking slag has been the biggest most damaging failure to nz in every way possible.
Jacinda ardern the muslim murderer!!!
Ardern had the bright idea that they could save money by changing the system that had worked well for decades and thought she could get away with it because there had never been a problem with vetted and licenced shooters. There is still no problem with licenced legitimate shooters and the deaths of all those innocent people lies heavily at the feet of lying Jacinda Ardern.
“Ardern had the bright idea that they could save money”
Since when has a Liarbour Poli been interested in saving money.
All they know if there is a problem, throw more money at it and hope it will go away.
IAASB,It’s farcical how that fact has been buried by our cowardly MSM, that skinny stooped creature had a direct connection with the mass murder of 51 NZrs yet the question has never been asked of her.
Jacinda helped murder 51 muslims at Christchurch!
No wonder she turns up tea towel on head.
Atonement!
Distraction
In my observation the clamp down was on Licensed Firearm Owners. It was excessive and well out of proportion to any issues arising from the rampage by Tarrant.
It appeared as taking advantage of a situation to effect some disarming of the licensed population. The non licensed were not going to be involved unless they came forward and fessed up. I do not think many without licences would have come forward.
Why the opposition, other than Mr Seymour, went along with the inappropriate action remains as a point of lost trust for me. They have some ground to make up but far less than Labour and the Greens. These two parties breached democratic norms in this country, did attack law abiding licence holders and that finished them for me. Completely untrustworthy as parties in government.
No firearms register is required. We have evidence the licensing system was not properly followed and therein was a substantial component of the issue. Just operating the Licensing system as intended is all that is required. I do not want my family or property threatened as a consequence of an unwanted, unnecessary register that is breached.