The Council of Licenced Firearm Owners (COLFO) says the newly issued ‘price list’ for compensation of banned firearms reveals that haste in preparing the ban has led to an underestimation of the number of affected firearms and their value.

The number of new firearms added to the buyback list, and the value of those firearms, is increasing. The police added 16 gun models in its July update, with an average base price of $4600, and 24 in its August update, with an average price of $4800. The average price of existing banned guns was around $3000.

There are now more than 350 models of banned firearms, 36 parts and nine magazine types. The new models and variants are being discovered as owners bring them to police collection events.

Nicole McKee, spokesperson for COLFO, said the collection events were revealing a wider range of guns and higher values than the Government expected.

“This is what happens when you make decisions in haste. The Government did not have the information required when it decided on the scope of which firearms would be banned.

“It did not expect so many guns would fall under the ban, nor that the newly discovered models would prove so much more expensive when compensating owners.”

McKee said the new firearms and values would result in a higher total cost of the compensation, and the range of new firearms handed in would continue to increase.

“Many collectors of unique and valuable models have not yet handed in firearms, and many more owners have not worked out that their models are included in the ban.”

She added that police had agreed to top up compensation for owners of models already handed in but only now added to the valuation list. They would not do so automatically, and owners had to apply for the top up.

The latest list is here: https://www.police.govt.nz/sites/default/files/publications/prohibited-firearms-and-parts-buy-back-price-list.pdf

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