Firearms owners challenge ammunition ban
The Council of Licensed Firearms Owners has gone to court to challenge the thinking behind a ban on certain military types of ammunition after the Christchurch mosques attack.
The council believes the ban will not make the country any safer. It asked a judge in the High Court at Wellington yesterday to review whether Police Minister Stuart Nash took into account incorrect information when making his recommendation that led to the banning order.
It also wanted the court to look at whether the owners should be compensated for losing ammunition that went on the banned list.
But the Crown has defended Nash’s recommendation.
Soldiers are armed differently to civilians and Nash made a perfectly rational policy decision, Crown lawyer Austin Powell said.
There is an obvious concern about ammunition that could penetrate body armour, such as police use, he said. His submissions continue today.
The change, which came into force on June 21, banned 10 types of ammunition including tracer, armour piercing, and explosive.
The council’s lawyer, Jack
Hodder, QC, told Justice Francis Cooke the challenge was directed to the first two on the list, tracer and enhanced penetration ammunition.
They were readily used by civilian firearms owners including for ‘‘plinking’’ (target shooting) and cheap brass from the casings. The parts could also be used to convert to more useable forms of ammunition.
Hodder said there was not a strong chain of reasoning that explained why those types of ammunition were singled out.
It seemed Nash asked whether these types of ammunition were predominantly for military purposes, when he should have been asking how their prohibition would enhance public safety, Hodder said. The council wanted declarations from the court that lawful owners had been deprived of their possessions, and that they were due compensation. Nash said he did not think there was a substantial investment in ammunition so he did not consider compensation.
The judge said he was surprised there would be any chemical or biological carrier ammunition, but was told that Wellington Zoo was consulted about that because the definition might have included tranquillisers used for animals.
In the wake of the March 2019 attack on two Christchurch mosques, which killed 51, the Government moved to ban semiautomatic firearms, and then ammunition.
Hodder said the council was asking for declarations in relation to ammunition, but there was no issue with the ban on semiautomatics.
The council, an umbrella organisation for groups of gun owners, says thousands of firearm owners helped fund the court action.