AMENDED EDITORIAL
This is an amended editorial to the one which initially appeared on January 11, 2017.
Police Association president Chris Cahill mistakenly gave an incorrect figure relating to guns in a recent media interview. Subsequent coverage linked to from the Police Association's website and used for the purposes of the editorial of January 11 was incorrect as a result.
Mr Cahill's amended comment now reads: ''Over 50,000 firearms enter the country each year, a number of which are stolen or sold to offenders.''
The Police Association has also corrected the comment on its website.
The Otago Daily Times apologises for any upset caused. - Ed
A new year has brought another fatal shooting by police and yet more debate about firearms availability.
Last week in Whanganui, Savey Kevin Sous died after being shot twice when he threatened officers responding to a domestic violence callout at his property with a loaded sawn-off shotgun.
The number of police shootings is increasing. The Whanganui incident was the fourth fatal police shooting - and the seventh overall - in the past 18 months.
Police Association president Chris Cahill says the shootings are a reflection of the number of firearms getting into the hands of criminals.
The association has called for an independent inquiry into the issue for at least the past three years. Previous association president Greg O'Connor has said police are losing the ''arms race''.
The Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) has responded to the latest incident with plans to lead a special investigation into the spate of police shootings to see if a pattern can be established. There is already a general inquiry by Parliament's law and order select committee into the issue of illegal firearms availability. Submissions to it closed last year and a report is expected next month.
The select committee inquiry was announced in the wake of last March's Kawerau siege, in which four police officers were shot at and injured in an armed standoff, and the discovery of a cache of 14 military-style assault weapons in an Auckland house. Police said at the time the size of that haul was unprecedented and alarming.
Last October, five rifles and 23 handguns, including several military-style semi-automatic firearms, along with ammunition, were stolen from a Maitland St, Dunedin, property, along with a list of weapons, and addresses of their owners.
Mr Cahill says "over 50,000 firearms enter the country each year, a number of which are then stolen or sold to offenders".
It is a source of frustration that the select inquiry's terms of reference were limited to the issue of illegal firearms, rather than licensing and legislation in general.
Police Commissioner Mike Bush has called for an amnesty on illegal guns as a way of reducing the number of unlawful firearms. This is certainly worthwhile, but is only an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, for an amnesty would not recover all illegal firearms nor address the problem of those coming into the country and falling into the wrong hands.
It is a difficult balance, given responsible gun owners will inevitably be tarred with any reactionary brush, yet there are relevant questions to be asked around gun ownership, that society, through a genuine wide-ranging inquiry, must tackle.
How many firearms does one licensed owner require, for example? Has gun ownership evolved into a right, rather than a privilege? Are current laws around the sale, possession and storage of firearms adequate - and are they adequately monitored? Should individual guns (not just their owners) be licensed? Are police adequately resourced? Are New Zealanders happy with the status quo? If the country is prepared to let the flow of arms continue, are we also prepared to arm our police to protect themselves and the public?
New Zealanders are sadly no strangers to gun violence - intentional and accidental. If gun crime and the numbers of firearms are rising, time is of the essence to achieve meaningful dialogue and progress. For the more guns we have, the more potential for harm.
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Comments
I note an assumption in this article, the writer is assuming firearms are falling into illegal hands each year from the ones being imported. Yet no mention of fact.
As for the how many should someone have, as many as they need.
Should professional shooters have a different licence allowing them to shoot in areas normally forbidden?
Thank you for listening the the overwhelming number of submissions highlighting the inaccuracies in this article. Unfortunately, this piece remains a tribute to anti-firearm agendas, driven less by fact and more by emotion and personal opinion than by reality or any empirical or quantifiable research. The language and speculation used in this piece is designed to stir up fear and concern, and raises issues in a very disingenuous manner. i.e. the way firearms are sold/stored is effective and clearly laid out in legislation, have been proven not to work (individual registration, failed and halted in NZ, and an abject failure in Australia and Canada, as admitted by their own Police) or been largely addressed by NZ's "world class" firearms laws (UN Centre for Peace and Disarmament). I challenge the ODT to present some genuine, non-biased research that represents both sides of the argument accurately and fairly, and to promote fact-based discussion based on reality with the intent of practical access, laws, and firearm safety for the good of all NZ.
Editor replies: An editorial by its very nature is the newspaper's opinion, so we are entitled to take a stance.
The police can take a long time to respond to crime ...and there are those that live in country areas miles from police......we all need to be able to protect ourselves ...........don't we ...