Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki live streams police seizing his guns

Tuesday, 30 June 2026

Police arrived at Brian Tamaki's property on Tuesday morning to inspect and seize his hunting rifles, an operation the Destiny Church leader livestreamed on his Facebook page.

Tamaki claims that police cancelled his firearms licence two days prior to the raid without giving him any prior notice.

Tamaki believes the sudden seizure is a direct reaction to his controversial public remarks regarding 'mass migration.'

The raid follows an announcement by police earlier this month that they were assessing inflammatory comments made by Tamaki, in which he called for a 'purge' of Sikhs, Muslims, and Hindus in New Zealand.

Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki says police have revoked his gun licence and carried out a seizure of his firearms following his recent inflammatory comments on immigration.

Tamaki livestreamed the police raid of his Auckland home on his Facebook page on Tuesday morning, showing officers going through what appeared to be a gunsafe, and inspecting weapons.

“So the boys are going through my rifles,” Tamaki says in video. “These are my hunting rifles, and they’ve come to collect them… they cancelled my licence two days ago without telling me.”

In the video, police are seen questioning Tamaki about the serial numbers on his firearms. He can be heard saying there is possibly one unlicenced gun.

Police confirmed they attended an Auckland address on Tuesday morning to serve the temporary firearms licence suspension notice, which took place without incident.

“Police is not in a position to comment on the specifics of this individual’s case,” said Superintendent Shanan Gray, Counties Manukau District Commander.

“However, generally speaking this sort of action is not uncommon. A person’s licence can be temporarily suspended while the firearms regulator investigates further, to ensure the licence holder remains ‘fit and proper’ to possess a firearm.”

Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour said he had “zero time for Brian Tamaki” but still wanted to ensure police actions were proper.

“Whatever the police have done is subject to the law. I hope that the police have acted within the law. In fact, I’m sure they will have,” Seymour told reporters.

“If he’s got any complaints, he should take them through the proper legal channels and possibly stop being a dickhead.”

Inflammatory social media video

Tamaki said he had been a hunter for 35 years and kept his weapons safely secured, and believed the police action was connected with his recent incendiary criticisms of “mass migration.”

“I think they’ve taken my guns, thinking I’m a dangerous man because I simply want our country to be protected,” he said in Tuesday’s video.

Earlier this month, police said they were assessing comments made by Tamaki in a video posted to social media, where he called for a “purge” of Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus in Aotearoa, in response to the supposed persecution of Christians in India.

“Let’s purge New Zealand of Hindus, Sikhkhs, and Muslims,” he said in the video, shared on June 17. “And while we’re at it, if they’re burning churches down, why don’t we burn mosques and their temples down, tit for tat.”

Police Minister Mark Mitchell said at the time Tamaki’s remarks were “designed to tear at our social fabric,” and that he understood police were testing the comments against a legal threshold.

During the raid, Tamaki speculated the “orders come from threatened politicians, and probably our friend Mark [Mitchell], who’s probably a bit frustrated with the way that I’m exposing all of this stuff.”

Mitchell told reporters at Parliament on Tuesday that he hadn’t had an update on the matter. “All I know is that police were initiating an investigation into Brian Tamaki after the public comments that he made targeting ethnic communities and and religious groups,” he said.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins, responding to the news of the police operation, told reporters at Parliament, “That’s gotta be a win for public safety, doesn’t it?”

‘They have twisted my words’

The seizure of his hunting rifles, Tamaki said in Tuesday’s livestream, likely followed complaints over his video.

“They’ve complained to police that probably I’m dangerous because of the threats they said about the mosques, the temples, which was never going to be happening,” he said. “I wouldn’t burn the temples down and neither would I do anything dangerous.”

In a statement after the raid, Tamaki said he had been told by officers he was “not a fit and proper person,” leading to the suspension of his gun licence.

“They have twisted my words,” he said. “I said imagine if this was happening in New Zealand – if we were burning down mosques and temples. I was making a point. I never implied I was going to do it.”

The statement continued: “When I said we should get rid of Sikhs and Hindus in this context, I meant stop them at the border and send them back if they will not assimilate.”

Tamaki said he had 28 days to make a submission to get his license back.

The property where the raid took place appeared to be the one Tamaki and his wife Hannah moved into back in 2017, located near Drury and Papakura in Auckland.