Frustration builds as police swamped with 10,000 firearm applications
Friday, 11 December 2020
Firearms licence applicants are growing increasingly frustrated as police muddle through 10,000 outstanding applications, some dating as far back as November 2015.
The issue comes as police are facing renewed criticism for inadequately scrutinising the March 15 terrorist before granting him a gun licence.
As of November 13, 5967 first-time applications for a standard firearms licence are waiting to be processed by police, along with 4295 applications from people wanting to renew their licence. Some applications date back years.
One first-time applicant was still waiting after applying on November 17, 2015, while the oldest outstanding application from a previous licence holder was filed on January 25, 2017.
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Acting arms safety and control Superintendent Mike McIlraith said police kept applications pending if the process was disrupted. Delays could happen when an applicant was unable to nominate someone willing to act as a referee, if they had not completed the firearms safety course, or if they temporarily resided somewhere where a firearm could not be stored.
There are currently 242,069 active firearms licence holders in New Zealand.
Between January 1 last year and October 31 this year, police received 32,562 applications for standard licences. By November 13, just over two thirds of those had been finalised. A standard licence allows a person to have and use any type of firearm except pistols, military-style semi-automatic firearms and restricted weapons.
According to police, it takes 247 days on average to process a first-time application for a standard licence. Applications for renewals take 147 days on average.
Some applicants claim they have been waiting nearly a year for an outcome.
Those who spoke to Stuff declined to be named for fear of it causing further delays to their applications.
Their complaints included police not contacting their nominated referees to progress their applications, police not willing to give reasons for delays, and police not responding to emails.
One Christchurch firearm owner said he applied to renew his licence in September and was told it would take six months. At the time, his current licence had been set to expire four weeks later.
“I had to remove all firearms from my property and store them with someone with a legal firearms licence.”
He was able to store them with a family member, but had to pay a firearms' retailer $20 a week to store his pistols – which are B-endorsement firearms.
He said police could not tell him how long it would take to process his application.
“Meanwhile it is costing me financially because they are snowed under.”
The man said he supported police being thorough and diligent to ensure public safety, but he had been a responsible firearm owner for 20 years without any problems.
“It should not take six months for me to get an existing licence renewed.”
An Auckland firearm owner had been waiting since February for his renewal to come through. “I was interviewed and had the inspection, then back to waiting. It is frustrating.”
He said it was a struggle for “honest firearms owners” to get clarity from police on their obligations if their licence expired while they were waiting for it to be renewed.
A Christchurch resident applied for his first standard licence last December.
“I am very happy to jump through any hoops needed … but to wait for months only to find out my application has not progressed at all, is very frustrating.”
McIlraith acknowledged police had a backlog of applications, largely due to Covid-19 and partly due to new legislation and systems.
Assault rifles and military-style semi-automatics were banned in New Zealand after the March 15 terror attack. Further gun reforms included the creation of a firearms' registry, and harsher penalties for rule breakers.
Police have more than 350 staff working on firearms licensing and regulation. McIlraith said police were seeking more staff, but it would take time to recruit and train them.
“We are working through applications as fast as we can. We expect the backlog to be with us for some time,” he said.
“Our priority is to work through existing licence holders first, with priority also given to those people who need a licence for work purposes.”
Numerous members of the New Zealand Deerstalkers Association (NZDA) have reported concerns about the delays.
“This is definitely going to become an issue where people won’t be able to do their jobs [and] people won’t be able to do their sport,” chief executive Gwyn Thurlow.
“[Firearm owners] don’t know – if their licences expire, and they have to hand their firearms over – when they will be able to get them back again.”
Members had also expressed concerns about the safety of their personal data if the licensing system was digitised, citing an incident where an Auckland police officer illegally accessed the police database to leak information to an organised criminal group.
Many NZDA members felt firearm owners were not being listened to because of what happened on March 15, Thurlow said.
“Firearm owners have been lumped together and demonized, and all because of a foreign terrorist who came here with an intent to [carry out a terror attack] using whatever he could get his hands on to do it.”
Council of Licensed Firearms Owners chairman Michael Dowling said the recently released royal commission report on the March 15 attack showed only the terrorist himself and the government agencies that allowed him to carry out the attack were responsible for what happned.
“It is not New Zealanders that need to be fixed, but our institutions.”
Dowling said the licensing system should be robust enough to ensure only the right people were granted licences, but it needed to be managed efficiently.
He felt three months was a reasonable timeframe to allow the necessary checks to be done.
“You are dealing with someone who has already previously been assessed as being fit and proper [to own a firearm]. All that needs to be done is check if anything has changed.”
There needed to be a dedicated agency that did not have to “compete with other priorities” to get the job done, Dowling siad.
“The New Zealand police are not the right agency for the job.”
Steps towards obtaining a firearm licence
The applicant must complete and submit the application form and pay the application fee.
The applicant must attend and pass a Firearms Safety Course developed by police and run by New Zealand Mountain Safety Council instructors.
A licensing clerk does a provisional assessment, including running the names of the applicant and referees against the police’s national intelligence database.
A vetting officer interviews the applicant’s referees (one close relative and one non-relative)
A vetting officer interviews the applicant and check applicant’s home for appropriate firearms' storage.
The application and referee interviews is reviewed by a district arms officer who can either approve the application, or refer it to a police officer with a rank of inspector or above with a recommendation that it be declined.