As you all know the government rushed into legislation new draconian gun laws as a result of the Christchurch massacre. They did so before the Royal Commission had even completed its investigation into the massacre.

We also know that the same Royal Commission found fatal errors in the Police handling of vetting and the licensing of Brenton Tarrant. Not a single Police staff member has been held accountable for their failings in administering the Arms Act.

In fact, the Police have used the tragedy to heap blame upon licensed firearms owners and treat them as petty criminals. In the process, they have also pushed through inane law changes and made life a whole lot more difficult for gun owners. It was all done under the guise of increasing the public’s safety.

They claimed that over 65,000 guns were taken off the streets, ignoring some glaring inconsistencies in the data and human nature. Most gun owners took their government money and simply bought more guns. In terms of inconsistencies in the data look at the following example.

The Police “bought back” 65,000 firearms. A small percentage of those were SKS/SKK firearms. Tens of thousands of those were imported into New Zealand in the 1990s and early 2000s. It is certain that more were imported than were “bought back”. Anyone in the firearms community knows this, but somehow the buy back was lauded as a great success.

But now we get to the ridiculous.

As part of the law changes, you now need a Police permit to import “parts”. The Police website explains:

A permit to import is required to import:

– a firearm, pistol, blank firing gun (including starting pistol), restricted airgun, or restricted weapon
– any part (see Section 2 of the Arms Act 1983 (link is external)) of a firearm, pistol, blank firing gun (which includes a starting pistol), or restricted weapon
– a prohibited firearm, prohibited magazine or a prohibited part (prohibited items)
– a pistol carbine conversion kit and an air pistol carbine conversion kit
– any non-prohibited ammunition
– any prohibited ammunition. The applicant must be a person who is authorised or expressly permitted to possess such ammunition

NZ Police website

And the Arms Act specifies what is a part:

part, in relation to any firearm or restricted weapon,—

(a) means—
(i) any component that, of itself, is essential to the discharge of any shot, bullet, missile, or other projectile from the firearm or restricted weapon; and
(ii) any component that is exclusively designed to be, or is intended to be, an integral part of the firearm or restricted weapon (for example, a butt, stock, magazine, or other component that feeds or contributes to feeding ammunition to the firearm or restricted weapon); and

b) includes the following components or accessories that can be fitted to, or adapted to fit, a firearm or restricted weapon:
(i) grips:
(ii) frames:
(iii) chassis systems:
(iv) magazine adapters:
(v) magazine couplers:
(vi) magazine loaders:
(vii) flash suppressors:
(viii) silencers:
(ix) folding or telescoping stocks; but

(c) does not include the following:
(i) pistol carbine conversion kits:
(ii) air pistol carbine conversion kits

Arms Act 1983

Last weekend I was shooting with an 1887 Martini Henry in .577/450. It is an antique and as you’d expect from a firearm made more than 130 years ago, sometimes things break.

The .577/450 round is rather large and isn’t for the faint hearted.

.577/450, .303 British, .22lr

Here is a slo-mo video of the .577/450 Martini Henry being fired:

Just in front of the receiver, underneath the fore stock, about where the sling swivel is on the video above is a Stock Fore-end Reinforcement Bar, held on by two screws.

Both of those screws sheared off and the fore stock came loose.

Here is where it gets very stupid. Both of those screws require a permit to import them. The replacement screws cost around $15 for the pair, and are available. But you need to fill out an import permit in order to import them.

I am not kidding. Read the law. These would qualify as parts as any component that is exclusively designed to be, or is intended to be, an integral part of the firearm, including screws that hold the fore stock to the firearm.

Two screws! For an antique black powder single-shot rifle. Though a few thousand dead Zulus and many others might like to classify this as an assault rifle, it most certainly is not.

I’ve written this to highlight precisely why you won’t find too many firearms owners who will sing the praises of the Police when it comes to the amendments to the Arms Act. It also gives you an insight into why there is such a backlog in processing licence renewals. The Police are busy processing import applications for bloody screws.

While we are talking about licence renewals…I applied for my licence to be renewed two months prior to expiry. My licence has since expired, and still has not been renewed for more than a month. It is duck shooting in another month and meanwhile I am also now unable to buy ammunition or transport my firearm to shoot weekly at the club because Police still have not processed my renewal. So far it has taken them 3 months…I’ll update you on how long precisely it finally takes.

Meanwhile I hope they process the import permit for the two screws in a somewhat shorter time frame.

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As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. When he’s not creating the news,...