Shooting sparks firearm debate

Consideration of stricter gun laws following the death of a police officer in Napier would be premature, Police Minister Judith Collins says.

There is one licensed firearm for every four people in New Zealand, but Collins said it was too soon to pin the blame for the death of Senior Constable Len Snee on gun control.

"We need to wait for the situation to be resolved before assessing the facts on this tragic event," she said.

"At the end of this, we want to see what's broken before we move to fix it. Bear in mind that there are a number of investigations that will take place at the end of this, and premature comment would be unhelpful to those investigations."

It is understood the alleged Napier gunman, Jan Molenaar, did not hold a firearms licence.

Gun control advocate Philip Alpers said the shooting in Napier would "stoke debate" once again for stricter gun licensing laws.

Police said there were between 800,000 and 1.5 million licensed firearms, roughly in line with the Government estimate of one million firearms in a 1997 review.

Police firearms and licensing adviser Paul Gatland said most firearms used in criminal activity were stolen from the 219,000 firearms licence-holders in New Zealand.

Alpers said the Napier shooting would spark more gun control debate.

"We tend to only think about gun laws in the few days after each shooting. It always brings up the debate.

"We hope it will not happen, but it will always stoke up the debate," he said.

New Zealand is one of the few countries not to have universal gun registration, he said.

"New Zealand stands almost alone with the US in not having universal gun registration. The availability of guns is very high and (the chance of their) being stolen is also very high."

He pointed to a move in Australia in 1996 to register all guns and destroy military-style semi-automatic weapons.

"Since then the risk of dying by gunshot has halved," he said.

Gatland said one of the conditions of a firearms licence was that an officer inspect where the weapon was held.

A standard firearms licence allows the holder to own low-calibre hunting weapons.

To be granted a licence, the applicant must read the arms code, provide two referees and be vetted, including an interview.

Both referees are also interviewed.

Most weapons in New Zealand are low-calibre hunting firearms.

Military-style semi-automatic weapons, pistols and registered weapons total about 91,000.

Those weapons require different licences with stricter conditions.

- © Fairfax NZ News