Hugh Devereux-Mack: Council of Licensed Firearms Owners spokesperson on the changes to the Arms Act

There’s a belief New Zealanders are no safer than they were before changes to the gun laws. 

A rewrite of the Arms Act simplifies rules for licensed owners for storage, repairs and visitor use, and adds harsher penalties. 

Gang members also won't be able to own a gun and semi-automatics will stay banned.  

Council of Licensed Firearms Owners spokesperson Hugh Devereux-Mack told Mike Hosking they were promised overwhelming reform but have only got a re-tweak of the existing law. 

He says the things that are mentioned are pretty good, but it’s what is absent that is going to annoy a lot of licenced firearms owners who were expecting more. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The gun reforms were released, but as of late afternoon
buried of course, under the mix skimming scandal. The firearms
registered will stay semi automatic. Access won't be wider than
the Firearms Safety Authority will remain under police gang members
are out for registering for a license, and we've got
some new rules around three D printing guns and stuff
like that. Hugh Deverromac is the council or with the
Council of Licensed spire our Owners and is with us.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Hugh morning, Good morning.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Make out of ten ten that couldn't have done any better?
One it was a bust. What's your number?

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Look? I think it's probably strong seven. So the things
that have mentioned are actually pretty good. But what's absent?
What is going to annoy a lot of license fiarms
owners who are expecting for more.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Okay, so the heavyweight stuff, the big guns, all that
sort of stuff. Is that going to upset people? Do
you think or not?

Speaker 2 (00:45):
I think what'll upset them is the fact that they've
been promised this sort of overwhelming reform of gun laws
and what we've actually got is just kind of a
retweak of what is already existing. So that'll be a
bit of a disappointment and that'll hopefully or more likely
come down on national for choosing politics over evidence.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
Bace warmaking that word. So that's interesting because the next
question is if they hadn't see is this or that
they'd sort of I mean, the inference was there that
big change was coming and it hasn't turned up. Is
that on them politically or not?

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Whether it's on act politically, I'm not sure how people
are going to respond to this one. To be fair,
there will be people who are coming for Nicole the
mount so that then would be of anyone in there
fighting for licensed firearms owners? Who else are you going
to give a vote to? Really, there's no.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
One, no, okay. So if you go back to the
original problem as they perceived it, which was the ADN
amendment out of christ Churge, has anything materially changed that
vastly improves or doesn't improve the scenario as we once
had it before Christ Churche.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
I think one of the major things that has it's
not necessarily changed, but it's new, and that's getting the
police regulator away from them. And this is because the
trust and confidence licenseed farms owners have had in police
have plummeted since twenty nineteen, and that's because after they
failed to do their due process and they gave a
terrorist to firearms license, they got up and said they

(02:09):
did nothing wrong with system needed to change in license
firearms owners to to blame. You can't recover from that
sort of reputational damage with the community that you are
then supposed to regulate and take care of. We've seen
multiple instances of individuals being bullied by police, by police
overreach due to clauses that say any factor and officer

(02:29):
deems appropriate is enough to strip someone of their license,
even though no crimes are being committed. It might be
a medical reason. So over the years, our faith and
police has completely broken down. So removing them, I think
is the biggest win for firearms owners and putting up
this new regulator and a review committee, hopefully which involves
members of the licensed community. I think that's a great

(02:50):
step for everyone well.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
Suit As a person who doesn't own a gun, have
never shot a gun, and not remotely interested in guns,
am I safer?

Speaker 2 (02:59):
I don't think you are any more safe from this.
And we know this because even the twenty nineteen law changes,
which made probably the most restrictive laws that New Zealand's
ever seen did not affect gun crime. What we have
to remember is these laws will affect by far the
licensed and law abiding individuals. They will make no difference
really to those who use firearms to commit harm in

(03:20):
our communities because they always employed the law. It's the
part of being a criminal.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
You appreciate it. You dip Rock from the Council of
License Fire our Miners. For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast,
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