Military-style automatics among hundreds of guns stolen in one year

Aramoana massacre-style semiautomatic firearms are among the hundreds stolen from licensed gun-holders in just one year.

Police figures show 549 firearms were stolen from licensed owners in the last financial year, and entered the criminal underworld.

They included six military-style semi-automatics (MSSAs), a submachinegun, three automatic rifles, as well as 178 shotguns, 324 rifles, and 37 pistols.

Police Association president Chris Cahill has previously called for an overhaul of the gun licensing system, which licenses the owner, rather than the firearm.

‘‘Put bluntly, criminals know that the current system which licences the owner and not the firearm is easy to exploit, poorly policed and poorly monitored,’’ he said. ‘‘As a result, there are too many firearms, and too many of the wrong type in the wrong hands in New Zealand.’’

Police were increasingly facing

''... criminals know that the current system which licences the owner and not the firearm is easy to exploit ...'' Police Association president Chris Cahill

gun violence, he said. A 2017 survey of association members showed one in eight were threatened more than once in the previous year – a 38 per cent increase on the 2015 survey results.

The latest figures show 1227 firearms were seized in the last financial year. Cahill said police knew of 13,331 MSSAs, 40,605 pistols, 4676 restricted machineguns and sub-machine guns, and 1419 other restricted firearms.

Firearm safety specialist Nicole McKee said there were an estimated 1.3 million guns in New Zealand, and the latest figures showed police were doing a good job.

‘‘We need to look at those 549 firearms stolen and see whether or not the security in those [was adequate].’’

She believed that, for now, the rules were ‘‘fit for purpose’’.

Rules around storing MSSAs and sub-machineguns were far more stringent than for other guns, and stipulated security checks every one to two years – instead of every decade – and that gun safes were made of thicker steel, she said.

Steel plates were needed in the ground beneath them.

Gun owners were generally ‘‘the most-observant people I have ever met’’ but, when those guns went to criminals, there was an almost polar shift.

Criminals probably didn’t keep guns properly away from children, or go through firearms training. ‘‘I doubt criminals keep them in safes.’’

Acting Superintendent Mike McIlraith said stolen guns ended up in criminal hands.

‘‘It creates a risk for the community and our staff. Police will continue to put a lot of effort into attempting to recover stolen firearms.’’

Police had set up a group looking specifically at ‘‘firearms related matters’’, he said.

The MSSA category was introduced after the 1990 Aramoana massacre, in which David Gray killed 13 people using similar weapons in the seaside township near Dunedin.