NZ First says fight still on

independent entity could delay a gun register for up to three years.

The bill also allowed for a change that will let the farming community and owners and managers of agricultural businesses apply for endorsements to use prohibited firearms for pest control, without having to establish a company to carry out the work. Mark was disappointed the bill did not make exemptions for sporting shooters.

After the bill passed, Police Minister Stuart Nash said the law was designed to stop firearms falling into the wrong hands.

‘‘The most significant change is the new firearms registry... This will finally track how many firearms are in legal circulation, who holds them, who is selling them and who is buying them.’’

Once the registry is established, every licence holder will need to keep updating it as they buy or sell guns, and they will have about five years to register.

As at June 3, almost 62,000 prohibited firearms had been collected, destroyed or modified. A further 2200 have been collected from dealer stock.

New Zealand Police Association president Chris Cahill said many of the reforms heralded in the bill fell into the ‘‘better late than never’’ category, with some at least 30 years overdue.

‘‘The shock to finally act was the murder of 51 people at prayer in two Christchurch mosques 15 months ago.’’

Another driver of the lengthy legislative process was the fact that there was no accurate record of how many firearms there were in Aotearoa, he said.

Council of Licenced Firearms Owners spokeswoman Nicole McKee said the passage of the legislation was a ‘‘terrible injustice’’ imposed on the firearms owners to cover police mistakes.

The law punished firearms owners by changing licence rules that had worked perfectly well until police switched resources and methods a few years ago, she said.