Armed cops won’t make us safer
Last week all frontline police in Christchurch were temporarily armed because an alleged offender was at large. Following the arrival of tasers a decade ago, and the regular carrying of firearms in police cars, the New Zealand public are now being encouraged to accept open arming of frontline police for their safety and supposedly for that of the public.
Being threatened with firearms is deeply frightening for people, whether they are dairy owners, domestic violence victims, or first responders, including police.
But overall, crime has been declining since the 1980s and violent offences with firearms have also declined. Evidence from other developed countries shows that arming frontline police results in more injuries and deaths from firearms – of criminals; those mistakenly identified as criminals, who are more likely to be from ethnic minorities; innocent bystanders; and the police themselves.
Arming frontline police is not going to make police and the public safer.
By far the largest number of deaths from firearms in New Zealand are suicides – about 50 a year. From 1988–2010, suicides made up 78 per cent of firearms deaths. Many occur to men in rural areas where firearms are more easily available.
Overall firearms deaths have declined over recent decades and international research shows that improved firearms storage such as that required in New Zealand saves lives. Licensed firearms owners must keep their guns locked in a safe. Even a few minutes’ delay spent unlocking the safe to get hold of a firearm and the separately-stored ammunition can prevent a suicide. Improved regulation based on research is a public health approach which we support.
The New Zealand system licenses the owner, and not – in most cases – the firearm. This is unlike the system for cars, where both the driver and the vehicle are registered, a system that works well and is widely accepted. Estimates of how many firearms there are in New Zealand range widely, from 1.2 million to two or three million.
Very few types of firearms must be individually registered with police: pistols, military-style semi-automatics and other restricted firearms, numbering about 66,000 firearms. Unlike most other developed countries, New Zealand has no general register of firearms or records of ammunition sales.
The gun lobby is fiercely opposed to a general register. Licensed firearm owners number under 250,000, about 5 per cent of the population. The term gun lobby refers to those firearms owners belonging to various firearms clubs and groups, and including rural organisations. Their voice is loud, organised and influential. They strongly resist any expansion of firearms regulation. A few firearm owners in New Zealand even openly adopt USA National Rifle Association rhetoric and talk about their ‘‘right to bear arms’’. Of course, there is no such right in New Zealand.
Firearms groups claim that a register would be onerous and ineffective. Meanwhile, there is no effective way of tracking firearms, of knowing which owners have lost firearms, had them stolen, are buying and selling to nonlicensed owners – or who might be building up big collections of firearms and ammunition.
United States research shows that all of these are important routes by which guns get into the hands of criminals and would-be mass shooters. The firearms lobby has rejected regulations the police wanted such as limiting ammunition sales to licensed firearms owners, or the effective restriction of semi-automatic firearms, because they claim this would place a burden upon gun owners.
Firearms groups often present themselves as the only people with a legitimate interest in firearms control. Over recent decades most politicians have accepted this and the gun lobby’s resistance to regulation has shaped government policy on firearms.
Thirteen of 20 recommendations from the recent Parliamentary Inquiry into issues relating to the illegal possession of firearms in New Zealand, including setting up a register, were rejected by then Police Minister Paula Bennett in 2017, prompting many observers, including the Police Association, to accuse her of bowing to pressure from the gun lobby.
Yet, because firearms are lethal and potentially threatening, all New Zealanders have a stake in firearms control. We have seen the result of limited regulation in other areas: leaky homes, Pike River, deaths in the forestry industry, and vehicle inspections, to name a few instances with negative, even deadly outcomes. Those who don’t want the police armed, and support greater regulation, need to start speaking up.