‘Let’s purge NZ’: The words that cost Brian Tamaki his gun licence confirmed

Friday, 3 July 2026

Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki revealed the Firearms Safety Authority's Notice of Temporary Suspension that he received, noting why his firearms were taken away.

The authority references a video made by Tamaki on June 17 where he shares inflammatory, racially-charged comments.

Tamaki provided a statement on Friday saying “passionate speech is not hate speech.”

Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki has shared what he says is the formal notice he received from the Firearms Safety Authority (FSA), revealing what got his rifles seized and his license suspended.

On Tuesday, Tamaki broadcast a livestream from his Auckland home as police officers inspected his weapons and took them away.

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

Brian Tamaki has criticised a decision by police to confiscate his firearms.

Tamaki sent Stuff a letter from the FSA on Friday showing what had prompted the suspension of his firearms licence. Stuff has contacted the FSA to verify the letter.

In the notice, Inspector Glenn Nalder says Tamaki’s licence has been temporarily suspended pending a decision to revoke it entirely, based on the conclusion that he was not “a fit and proper person to be in possession of a firearm or an airgun”.

Nalder then sets out the reasons for that determination, citing a video shared on social media on June 17 in which Tamaki said, “Let’s purge New Zealand of Hindus, Sikhkhs, and Muslims”, in response to what he said was the persecution of Christians in India.

“While we’re at it, if they’re burning churches down, why don’t we burn mosques and their temples down, tit for tat,” Tamaki said in the video.

Brian Tamaki says the decision by police to confiscate his firearms was a “political move” after recent inflammatory comments he made on immigration.

Nalder also references Tamaki’s claim that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was complicit in the “mass rape” of children and that “Muslims and Islam is doing the same thing”.

“I think as a father and a grandfather and a great grandfather, I’d go and get my pig hunting gun and go around and visit them … I would go round there, boot the door down. And I would shoot them,” Nalder quoted Tamaki as saying.

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.

The letter said the published video, which was freely available to view, alongside Tamaki’s “significant public profile”, constituted encouragement and promotion of violent action and significant property damage.

The FSA said the temporary suspension of Tamaki’s firearms licence began on June 26 and would “provide time for police to consider whether to revoke your firearms licence on the grounds stated above”.

If a decision to revoke his licence was not given within 90 days of the suspension taking effect, the suspension would end.

Tamaki was required to surrender his licence, along with all firearms and ammunition in his possession or under his control. He was able to provide submissions regarding any final decision to revoke his licence.

Tamaki, in a statement on Friday, said “passionate speech is not hate speech”.

“I never incite violence. Anyone who watches my full podcast can clearly see my tone, context and intent. I was making a political argument using strong language to passionately expose the horrific acts happening in India,” he said.

'When I use the word ‘purge’, I am referring to deportation, not violence. I believe people who choose to immigrate to New Zealand should assimilate into the Kiwi way of life, not seek to change it.”

Tamaki said he would be formally challenging the temporary suspension of his firearms licence through the proper legal process.