Questions on gun buyback after estimate not updated
WELLINGTON: Both police and the Government are claiming a successful firearms buyback — despite having no uptodate estimate of how many guns they expected to be handed in.
Figures supplied by Police Minister Poto Williams are from March 2020, and were never updated to reflect changes to the rules.
The National Party said it showed the buyback was simply a PR exercise, rather than an effective way to get dangerous guns off the streets.
According to the latest figures, a little more than 600 guns were handed in during the threemonth buyback.
The amount paid out in compensation was around $1.7 million.
Police and the Government welcomed those figures and said they meet expectations.
But when the Government was asked to provide its estimates as to how many guns would be handed in by the National Party police spokesman Simeon Brown, the numbers did not stack up.
In a reply to a written question, Ms Williams said: ‘‘Police estimated that there would be between 50 and 100 short semiautomatic rifles handedin, between 750 and 1000 firearms containing centrefire lower receivers, and between 1385 and 1700 pumpaction centrefire rifles’’
That is an estimate of between 2185 and 2800 guns that were expected to be handed in, according to that quote, written on April 1.
According to police, that estimate came from March 2020 and was never updated when the regulations were set for the second buyback and amnesty.
Inspector Richard Wilson said in a statement certain factors were taken into account in the estimates which later were not part of the buyback.
‘‘For example, it was anticipated originally that collectors would hand in their firearms for compensation.
‘‘However, through regulations it was deemed that semiautomatic pistols held by a collector, museum director/curator, approved employee/ member of a broadcaster/theatrical society etc, or as an heirloom/memento, would not be prohibited firearms (so not eligible for compensation) and would be able to be retained by a person with an endorsement on their licence and a permit to possess/import, allowing them to possess that semiautomatic pistol in those noted capacities.’’
He said police also wanted to provide a generous estimate.
‘‘After the regulations were passed and understood, police were able to directly engage with members of the firearms community.
‘‘Talking to licenceholders about what firearms they held also changed our expectations.
‘‘That is why police are confident this has been a successful buyback in removing newly prohibited, highrisk firearms from our communities.’’
Ms Williams was not able to recall the estimates her office had when asked earlier this week.
She said the buyback has been successful, despite not having any estimates for how many guns should have been handed in.
‘‘I’m given lots of information from police about guns that are out there but I think you’re kind of missing the point here,’’ Ms Williams said.
‘‘The point is, actually, we need to get a better handle on what is in the community and our gun register will go some way to doing that.’’
Mr Brown said Ms Williams cannot fall back on the need for a gun register when police had been incapable of putting together estimates.
‘‘The reality is the police had an estimate back in March 2020, but more recently after making changes to regulations they didn’t have an estimate,’’ Mr Brown said.
‘‘So clearly they’ve got some information and should have put together a more uptodate estimation so they would be able to measure the effectiveness of their buyback.’’
Mr Brown said it showed the Government was all talk.
‘‘The fact that they didn’t have an uptodate estimate around how many firearms they were hoping to get off the street shows it was just a PR exercise rather than an effective tool to get guns off the streets.’’
An amnesty runs until August for people wishing to hand in banned guns, but they will not get compensation. — RNZ