The man with the McQualifcations™ strikes again:
“A gun control advocate says New Zealand’s failure to register firearms places our gun laws “almost alone with the United States”.
Gunpolicy.org director Philip Alpers warns the number of seizures by police means nothing when there’s still no idea of how many firearms are in the country. However Council of Licenced Firearms Owners spokesperson Nicole McKee says the move would be far too expensive.
“Police abandoned firearm registration in 1983 because it was deemed to not be that effective,” she says. “It was very expensive for little result. Criminals do not have firearms licences; they are not going to register their firearms.
Figures released under the Official Information Act show police have seized close to 6000 guns since 2012. More than 1200 firearms were recovered last year alone. Mr Alpers said the seizures are probably just a drop in the bucket.
“There’s very little accountability for careless or bent gun owners who allow their guns to get loose, police don’t maintain a register,” he said on Tuesday. “A completely unrecorded gun sale in a hotel car park is still perfectly legal.”
Mr Alpers is adamant the establishment of a gun register is the only way to tackle our rising levels of gun related crime.“The latest figures show there were 0.11 gun related murders per 100,000 New Zealanders in 2014.”It’s now 21 years since Sir Thomas Thorp’s 1997 Review of Firearms Control in New Zealand recommended all firearms be registered.
“In comparison to almost every other industrialised nation, New Zealand’s gun laws are still permissive,” Mr Alpers says.”New Zealand’s failure to register almost 96 percent of its guns still ranks you almost alone with the United States.”
Ms McKee says tighter restrictions need to be placed on gun ownership.
“What we need to be looking at is not registration of firearms but rather security of firearms. “We just need to look at how we can tighten it a bit more, but still make it achievable. “We’re working with police to look at what is current, what can be improved on and what will work for New Zealand.”
However, Philip Alpers says that won’t do anything to shed light on the figures of illegal guns. “It makes it impossible to judge any of this improvement if you don’t have a register and if you don’t know how many guns you’ve got in the country, you can’t possibly gauge the scope of the problem.”
This also comes after NZ Police are trying to rewrite the law to suit themselves again, from our friends at Firearm Owners NZ:
“Over the weekend we saw the release of 2 new police policy documents on proposed security requirements.
For FOUNZ, other than the complete disregard to consultation, there are 2 major points that licenced firearm owners need to be aware of.
1) Police are attempting to reclassify by internal policy, A cat semi Automatics into their own security requirements.
2) Police will force you to agree to the requirements of their policy (and possibly all future illegal and ultra vires policies) by signing a contract. Please note this part of the contract in capitals below:
“… I understand that the Police may revoke the licence or endorsement(s) if I fail to observe any of the conditions imposed by the Arms Act 1983, the Arms Regulations 1992 AND THE NEW ZEALAND POLICE AS SET OUT IN THE DOCUMENT…”
The question we ask is whether your security will be approved if you refuse to sign a document that circumvents the Arms Act?
Stuart Nash MP, police are attempting to implement policy that has no legal standing. Being forced to sign this policy would remove our rights under the arms act. We saw police attempt this earlier this year with the 2017 Arms Code. As Police minister, you need to take a close look at the way police are attempting to subvert the law.
Alpers’ claims are laughable. 0.11 firearm homicides per 100,000 people (nearly all criminal related) and that’s apparently enough to overhaul the whole system and bring in registration? What does Alpers think will happen if registration comes in? Most guns will go to ground. There are over 240,000 licensed firearm owners in NZ, which makes Alpers theft claims equally odorous when you do the math and work out the incredibly small percentage of thefts.
Canada ditched their registry in 2012 when it became obvious it was incredibly expensive for no benefit, which is why NZ dropped it in the first place.
Alpers also has no idea about how many illegal firearms there are in Australia let alone New Zealand and has consistently thrown around the mythical 250,000 number, of which he never demonstrated how he derived such a figure.
The comparisons to the US are a joke but that’s not worth the time of day.
Despite no mass shootings since 1997, it’s clear that New Zealand is next on the global disarmament hit list, particularly with all the noise made about NZ laws by Australian shooters and the lack of noise made about NZ’s laws made by the Australian media.
We suspected that Labor were going to attempt to do this if they got into power (in reality so were the National Party). We suspected as much after NZ Police Union President Chris Cahill’s repeated attempts to change the laws earlier in the year. Police are currently taking public submissions in regard to the changes.
We’ll be keeping an eye on this as it develops.
Further to that, we’d like to see Alpers ‘register’ his academic qualifications.
He can’t register what he doesn’t have Alpers still believes that Fantasia is a real place that you can visit by finding a secret passage in your wardrobe
well…this ain’t the 1980s or the 1990s … so…..they’re not gunna get any “dream runs” in the media;
also: FONZ and SSANZ etc have got much more ‘go’ in them than the squat-when-they-piss types @ the SSAA…..
The next threat to Kiwi LFAOs – the “Public Health” war on guns from a University.
With Alpers in attendance ..
http://www.otago.ac.nz/wellington/departments/publichealth/summerschool/otago665001.html
Firearms policy is often hotly-contested. How can we find common ground? International and local speakers will discuss the public policy and other aspects of firearms in Aotearoa/ New Zealand and our region.
NOTE: A free Public Health Summer School Evening Lecture, ‘A disarming Public Health lesson from the Pacific’ will be held at the end of this course, presented by Philip Alpers, University of Sydney. It will run from 5.15pm – 6.15pm
Firearm safety is an issue in public health because of gun-shot deaths and injuries and other health effects; some groups are more vulnerable than others. A revitalised public discussion about firearms is needed; this symposium is a timely contribution.
… and PAlpers did not turn up – no free Lecture … just some pre-recorded tripe which got wholeheartedly BOOOed. The ‘Russians’ who were sold the rotten egg and tomato franchise were pissed off!
The seminar was better off for his absence as some excellent speakers appeared and there was a robust exchange of ideas.