Police Minister provides new detail of possible gun law changes

Police Minister Stuart Nash told TVNZ 1’s Q+A programme that he’s in favour of introducing a gun register as part of the Government’s response to the Christchurch Mosque attacks.

“In principle I’m in favour of a register but I have asked police to get me more information on where compliance lies, what it would look like, how it would operate, the cost of this. And also to go out to some of our partners, global partners, who have implemented a register and look at world’s best practise to make that if we implement one – and like I said, I’m in favour of it to be honest – but if we implement it, we actually get it right.”

“Another thing we are going to take a look at is the ‘fit and proper person test’. So in the past the police had to prove a person wasn’t a fit and proper person, we’re going to see if we can reverse that onus – the decision hasn’t been made – but we’re investigating reversing that onus so the person themselves, the applicant has to prove that they are in fact a fit and proper person. This is everything that cabinet is going to consider in a paper that’s going to come to them at the end of April and we will hope to legislate by the end of the year.”

“We want to codify in legislation that in this country, it is a privilege, not a right, to own a firearm.

The Government announced a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the shootings today but Mr Nash says the police investigation is well underway. He described it as the biggest in New Zealand’s history, with 250 police officers working on the inquiry, including representatives from the FBI and Australian police.

Please find the full interview here.

Q+A, 9:30pm Mondays on TVNZ 1 and one hour later on TVNZ 1 + 1.
Streamed live at www.tvnz.co.nz
Thanks to the support from NZ On Air.
Q+A is also on Facebook + Twitter + YouTube

ends

© Scoop Media