The “GunSafe” firearm data withheld from the New Zealand Herald for two years proves that the firearm confiscation
following the Christchurch terror attack did not work, and the Government was wrong to act against licensed firearm
owners.
COLFO Spokesperson Hugh Devereux-Mack says that if the GunSafe data is correct, illegal firearms were never handed in by
criminals.
“This data, withheld for two years, shows the buyback did not make New Zealanders safer. Illegally owned firearms stayed
illegally owned, in homes and on the street, ready to be used.
“Licensed firearm owners were vilified for complaining about the buyback and rule changes, and were maligned in an
infamous cover of the Police Association magazine.
“Two years later the Police’s own data proves that we were right; a buyback would, as in every other country they have
been tried, only recover the legal firearms, not the underground firearms that posed the real risk to everyone’s
safety.”
GunSafe data was promised to be public and easily accessible to help guide policy. Police Association President Chris
Cahill originally praised the Police for creating what he called a “dashboard of stats showing the “firearms event” landscape for the whole country.”
Devereux-Mack says GunSafe data has been selectively presented and misused since it was created in 2019. COLFO, the New
Zealand Herald, and many others frustrated at the misuse have had to turn to the Official Information Act to extract
data from Police.
“The Police have presented parts of the data when they think it shows the threat to themselves, or when implication that
firearms are widespread will help policy changes.
“It is unreliable and should not be used as evidence supporting tighter restrictions on legal firearm owners nor
supporting general arming of Police,” Devereux-Mack says.
The data includes all manner of events, even callouts where firearms are never found. Even the Police Association noted
in 2020 that recording of events is erratic.
Data reliability is undermined by broad criteria that leads to ‘events’ being entered into the Gun Safe system. Entries
include times a firearm is suspected but not present, times where there is a ‘perceived firearms risk’ but no actual
firearm involved, times a subject is known to have a firearm – but Police do not encounter one, and for events when
there is something that looks like a real firearm, but isn’t.
Event details are either combined in rough categories or inputted into free text fields which Police noted in an OIA
response to COLFO last year, made it too time consuming to formulate into more useful data.
COLFO supports frontline officers and their work on operation Tauwhiro which is necessary to tackle criminal use of
firearms. Devereux-Mack says this is where Police should be investing their efforts and not the administration of the
firearms licensing system where police have clearly shown that they are an inefficient disaster.