Act quickly on air rifle bill - Police Commissioner

A proposal before Parliament to licence high-powered air rifles as firearms needs to be addressed quickly after a man was found guilty of murdering an undercover policeman with one, Police Commissioner Howard Broad says.

Outside a law and order select committee today, Mr Broad said high-calibre air rifles needed to be re-classified as firearms.

His comments came less than a week after John Skinner, 38, was convicted of murdering Sergeant Don Wilkinson with a high-powered air rifle in 2008.

He was also found guilty of attempting to murder a colleague of Mr Wilkinson, after shooting that officer three times with the air rifle. Co-accused Iain Clegg, 36, was found guilty of manslaughter.

Mr Broad said a proposal to re-classify air rifles was considered before Mr Wilkinson's death and was currently before Parliament.

"It's part of a package of arms-related issues that has been around for a while. It may be one of those specifics within a package that needs to be brought out and dealt with quickly," he said.

"I'm hopeful that is a piece of legislation that would pass."

Police Association president Greg O'Connor last week said the lack of licencing requirements for air rifles was attractive to criminals.

"We've only had to see by this murder of Don Wilkinson that criminals have taken advantage of that," he told Radio New Zealand.

Legislation for high-powered airguns should be considered independently, he said.

- NZPA