The police are forging on with their arms register, assuring us all that everything will work as planned and it will be safe and secure. No matter that people involved in the project are quietly telling others that the project isn’t fit for purpose and that the software selected has more holes than a colander.

The government is 100% adamant that it is going live with the register in June. It won’t be anywhere near complete, but the government wants to announce this before the election. Currently 50 people are working on it. What they want and what will be delivered in the time available are vastly different.

The register will be housed by the new, supposedly independent firearms authority, which in reality is a little Police castle being built. The Authority and Police will be able to access it through the NIA system somehow. The NIA system is extremely secure; the proposed new system, however, has been described to me as “a piece of shit”.

Apparently, it took one of the project team less than 30 minutes to fully penetrate it. In any case, this system is highly unlikely to be running by June 2023. What the development team is actually working towards is “MVP” which means “Minimum Viable Product”: basically what they can deliver by the June 2023 deadline. Which will be three fifths of five eights of stuff all, but the government will be able to announce that they have done something.

Meanwhile, the NZ Herald reports on the criminal and underhand activities of more than 200 Police:

More than 200 police staff – from recruits right up to senior inspectors and top cops – have faced criminal charges in the last few years, including for drugs, fraud, serious physical and sexual assaults, kidnapping, family harm and driving offences.

From the start of 2015 to the end of October 2022 a total of 213 constabulary and non-sworn staff were charged with criminal offending.

Police provided the information on charges to the Herald under the Official Information Act.

The information stated that 213 staff faced 274 charges arising from 207 “incidents”.

In some cases, employees faced multiple charges.

Of the total charges 82 convictions were recorded, 157 were discharged, dismissed, withdrawn or acquitted after a trial before a jury or judge alone.

A number of cases are still ongoing and before the courts.

The most common charges were for:

  • Manner of driving
  • Serious assault
  • Grievous assault
  • Alcohol and drug-impaired driving
  • Sexual attacks
  • Minor assaults
  • Theft
  • Fraud
  • Computer crime

There were only three homicide incidents involving five staff. Homicide charges include murder, manslaughter and attempted murder.

Other charges related to communication abuses, disorder, drugs, family harm, firearms, intimidation and threats, kidnapping, property damage, sexual affronts, speed camera offences and trespass.

Some staff were also charged with breaching New Zealand legislation including the Immigration Act, Inland Revenue Act and Resource Management Act.

NZ Herald

Nowhere in the world has a firearms register ever been implemented successfully. Most are a dog’s breakfast, all are horrendously expensive, and our Police are trying to shoehorn a not fit for purpose Australian system into a successful register in New Zealand.

Will it be accurate? Not even remotely.

Will it be safe and secure? Unlikely, given what has been leaked to me.

Will it achieve its stated purpose? Not even close.

The existing register is a dog’s breakfast. I was recently inspected and faced interrogation as to the whereabouts of a pistol I sold. The pistol in question was sold at a gun show, along with several other registered items, and the paperwork was processed at the same time by Police staff in attendance. Three of the transactions were recorded correctly, but the fourth was missing in action. I was accused of breaking the law, even after I produced the permits and the transfer documents which the Police shamefully seem to have lost.

There are many, many other instances, particularly in the collector community, of similar occurrences. The Police can barely manage the register for pistols, restricted and prohibited firearms now. Imagine what it will be like when the new register comes in and EVERY firearm is now subject to permits for buying and selling.

The Police are prepping everyone to load their own firearms into the register. Can you see the glaring and obvious problems this will cause? Firstly they are relying on people to enter everything. Secondly, they are relying on people to transcribe serial numbers into the system accurately. Many of my firearms don’t have serial numbers. They only came into being with industrialisation. No Martini Henry, or Snider, or Pattern 58 Enfield have any serial numbers. Some Smith and Wesson revolvers, usually those made between 1914 and 1945, have two serial numbers. Which one do you enter? I wonder how many Colt pistols will be entered with a serial number of 1911A1? What are the police going to do about my box of Lee Enfield receivers and spare parts?

Only a fool would enter their firearms records themselves. Guess who the Police will charge when they find a gun with the wrong serial number? Yep, you: the muggins who entered it yourself. Firearms owners need to refuse point blank to enter anything in the system. They should insist on Police attending your premises and entering it themselves. I certainly will be doing that. I am not going to enter it myself.

When you add in the criminal element as outlined above we are heading for a disaster. Worse still, the changes won’t stop a single crime from being committed, despite claims to the contrary.

Firearms owners are now the most scrutinised people in the country, but the Police treat us all like we are criminals. Firearms owners usually could be found among the biggest supporters of the Police. Not anymore. The Police have turned firearms owners against them.

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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,...