Southern police have granted firearms licences to more than 99% of applicants over the past five years, new figures reveal.
Of the 2815 firearms licences applied for in Otago and Southland last year, 2797 (99.4%) were granted, according to figures obtained from police under the Official Information Act.
Since 2014, Southern district (Otago and Southland) police have consistently granted firearms licences for more than 99% of applicants, and the percentage has been above 98% since at least 2008.
University of Otago National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies chairman Prof Kevin Clements, a gun control advocate, said the figures showed a need for tighter vetting of gun licence applicants.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has promised changes to New Zealand's gun laws after the Christchurch terror attacks, and Prof Clements yesterday again called for reforms to firearms law, including:
- All firearms to be registered to their owners, in addition to owner licensing.
- A buyback and ban of military style semi-automatic (MSSA) weapons.
- Tighter provisions for vetting and licensing.
- A three-year licensing period instead of the current 10-year cycle.
- An independent firearms authority to monitor enforcement.
He also called for a firearms amnesty when the Otago Daily Times reported in January the Southern district had among the highest rates of military-style semi-automatic weapon ownership in the country.
Prof Clements said he had long feared another massacre was coming in New Zealand.
"I was just sickened. I get all this pushback from the gun lobby and I said 'It just takes one person having a psychotic break or somebody full of hate and venom and you could have a tragedy on your hands'.
"And now we have a tragedy on our hands. This is exactly what I was afraid of.''
Gun City owner David Tipple, of Christchurch, said at the time it was unsurprising the South had a relatively high rate of MSSA ownership given the use of large-capacity 30-shot magazines for pest control, especially by shooters operating from helicopters.
When called for comment again, Mr Tipple said his "advisers'' had told him hosting a press conference today would be the best course of action.
He refused to be drawn ahead of the press conference on whether the suspect in the Christchurch attacks, Brenton Tarrant, purchased guns or equipment from any of its stores.
"We are having a conversation with police and it is after that, that we will be able to make comment.''
Tarrant acquired a basic gun licence, known as a category A licence, in 2017.
Newsroom reported he probably purchased his guns legally but they were later altered.
Council of Licenced Firearms Owners spokeswoman Nicole McKee told RNZ there was a stringent vetting process for firearms licences which included interviews with referees.
She did not believe MSSAs should be banned.
"We have several legitimate uses for them in this country - we have them for sporting uses, we have them for on rural properties, we have workplaces that use them for culling. So there's actually quite a number of reasons that we have them.''
Even so, changes might have to be made to ensure the wrong people did not access firearms in future, she said.
"We have the ability here in New Zealand to continue to treat the licence holder as fit and proper and maybe the issue needs to be how did this guy get his licence? And if the process there needs serious looking at and perhaps amending.''
- Additional reporting RNZ
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Comments
Prof Kevin Clements is providing misleading claims from the statistics. There is no way that a high percentage of applications granted can be immediately claimed to indicate that the applications were not legitimate without additional information. What additional information does the professor have beyond this single statistic?
Another conclusion - which is just as likely from that statistic - is that the gun licencing application requests all the information required to correctly assess the application on the first attempt.