New Zealand's Jacinda Ardern 'does not understand' why US has failed to toughen gun laws. / CNN
Documents released to the Herald reveal Prime Minister Christopher Luxon told Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee to put more emphasis on public safety in her gun law reforms.
The wording in McKee’s Cabinet paper then changed accordingly, but without substantive changes to her proposals, has led to criticism the public safety rhetoric is “window dressing”.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon had some clear feedback for Nicole McKee for one of her draft Cabinet papers reforming firearms laws: more emphasis on public safety.
But, other than words, McKee’s paper saw no substantive policy changes, sparking criticism the “public safety” message is little more than window dressing.
That intent was made clearer after a ministerial meeting on May 7 last year, where McKee presented her draft Cabinet paper on changes for clubs and ranges.
“We have further feedback and direction for the paper following this evening’s meeting with the PM,” a post-meeting email from the Justice Ministry’s harm reduction and public safety policy team said.
McKee’s paper needed to “focus less on reducing regulatory burden, and further emphasise public safety”, said the email, among 300 pages of documents released to the Herald under the Official Information Act.
“The paper as a whole should be centred around public safety and written from this point of view ... Highlight the current costs to clubs, membership, committee volunteers, but most importantly how this is a positive story for everyone (assuring the public their safety is paramount)."
Stricter rules for gun clubs and shooting ranges were brought in by the previous government in the second tranche of changes following the 2019 Christchurch terror attack. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
Window dressing?
McKee’s draft paper already had some references to public safety. Clubs and ranges were safe and secure places where people learned how to operate their firearms safely, the paper said, but unnecessary regulatory burden was “ultimately undermining public safety”.
Following Luxon’s feedback, these references were ramped up. For example, the sub-heading “My priority is to reduce the burden on clubs and ranges” in the draft paper became, in the eventual one, “My priority is public safety”.
McKee also added: “I am motivated to ensure that each and every requirement to operate a club and a range is justified by a public safety rationale.”
The changes to the wording weren’t accompanied by any substantive changes to the proposals. So is this all talk and no walk?
“The Government tried to wrap their changes to the regulation of gun clubs and ranges in the rhetoric of public safety, but this is just window dressing,” Gun Control NZ spokeswoman Philippa Yasbek told the Herald.
“The language of public safety becomes meaningless if it is used as a cloak to disguise changes that prioritise licence holder convenience over genuine public safety.
The following line in the officials’ regulatory impact statement, McKee noted, was that “certainty is limited as it is unknown how far existing measures have increased public safety”.
Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee. Photo / Mark Mitchell
McKee said Gun Control NZ was “scaremongering”.
“When it comes to safety around firearms, I am unequivocal. Safety always comes first and as a professional in this field, I would back my experience and knowledge in this area.
"I have repeatedly stated that public safety, along with good regulations and focus on compliance, is at the forefront of everything we are doing in the firearms reforms space.“
She said the majority of the changes in her bill “do not impact public safety”.
“Instead they are focused on stopping duplication and reducing regulatory burden on people who are predominantly volunteers.
“While I accept that some people, especially those who are unfamiliar with firearms, are anxious when we talk about changes to legislation, I want them to remember that for much of my career I have worked in the firearms safety area.”
Nicole McKee's draft Cabinet paper before feedback from Christopher Luxon said her priority was to reduce the burden on clubs and ranges. This was later changed to public safety.
Backing NZ police - sometimes
Cabinet backing for McKee’s changes raised some eyebrows because Luxon and Police Minister Mark Mitchell have repeatedly said they want to do all they can to back the police.
But police, along with Justice Ministry officials, said the changes had the potential to worsen public safety outcomes by weakening police oversight and inspection powers, which McKee believes are overkill.
Justice officials added that McKee’s rationale for the changes was based on an untested assumption that lacked evidence: that clubs and ranges would close (and the safety benefits they offer would be lost) if the regulations weren’t eased.
McKee responded by saying she is confident the assumptions were well-founded, based on feedback from clubs and ranges themselves, and reinforced by her “own extensive experience”.
Labour has called the risk of them closing “miniscule”, based on how few have shut shop. There are about 400 clubs and 1200 shooting ranges. Following the new regulatory requirements brought in by the previous Government, almost all of them are still operating.
The Firearms Safety Authority is aware of four pistol clubs and four ranges that have shut, but none because of regulatory issues. A total of 292 improvement notices have been issued, none of which have led to closures because a workable solution, the authority said, has always been found.
The authority wouldn’t necessarily know about voluntary closures, however. McKee told the Herald in September last year she was aware of five voluntary closures.
The New Zealand Deerstalkers Association Bay of Plenty brach shooting range. Photo / Supplied
The politics of gun law reforms
There’s another reason why McKee managed to progress her proposals despite objections from police and the Police Association: coalition politics.
Easing regulations for clubs and ranges is a commitment in the National-Act coalition agreement, so Luxon was obliged to support McKee’s bill or risk breaking the agreement.
This doesn’t mean Luxon doesn’t believe the changes will improve public safety, or that they can’t or won’t achieve that. Nor is it inconsistent with National voting against the 2020 law change that enabled the tighter regulations, which the Government is now partially undoing.
But the wording in the coalition agreement - to repeal and replace the regulations - also left little room for National or NZ First to block McKee’s proposals.
That’s not the case when it comes to Act’s wishes in other areas of gun law reform. The party campaigned on axing the gun registry, and changing the licensing system to allow, in some circumstances, greater access to military-style semi-automatic firearms.
But Act was unable to convince National to commit to these during coalition negotiations, perhaps wanting to concentrate on other priorities such as the Treaty Principles Bill.
Coalition negotiations between Christopher Luxon and David Seymour led to a number of commitments to do with firearms law reform, some vague and some very specific. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Instead, the National-Act coalition agreement commits more broadly to a review of the gun registry, and a rewrite of the Arms Act “to provide for greater protection of public safety”.
That leaves far more room for National or NZ First to block any attempt from McKee to scrap the registry or broaden access to MSSAs, regardless of how strict the licensing requirements might be.
Police Minister Mark Mitchell has been very supportive of the registry, and against greater access to MSSAs. Police are also very supportive of the registry, while the Police Association wants to keep the essential ban on using MSSAs (currently only about 300 commercial pest controllers can fire them).
“While the registry is not yet fully populated, it is already changing the game for us,“ Detective Senior Sergeant Mike Sears said, after tracking a Mongrel Mob gun supply through the registry last year.
“This is a great example of our communities being made safer because frontline police have been able to build a robust intelligence picture and follow good-quality information from the Firearms Registry.”
The registry’s usefulness has also been referenced by those whose illegal activity - in particular “straw buying” or retail diversion - it helps to target. Eden Singe was sentenced last year for helping move a firearm onto the black market, which was later used in Matu Reid‘s deadly rampage in the Auckland CBD.
Court documents showed Singe telling an associate that “he wouldn’t be buying any more firearms whilst the new registry was operating”, and that he was “just waiting for the election bro” as he hoped the incoming 2023 Government would scrap the registry.
The acquaintance told him the registry “stops [people] doing what we are doing [selling firearms to someone who doesn’t have a firearms licence]”.
Auckland CBD gunman Matu Reid, who died in a shoot-out with police after killing two construction workers at the One Queen Street site. Photos / Hayden Woodward / Supplied
The public safety rationale for further changes
McKee has walked back from the position of axing the registry entirely, and last year talked about requiring it for certain restricted firearms.
A key question for the review of the registry, then, was whether most of the public safety benefits could be kept while allowing some firearms to be unregistered.
This is a harder “public safety” sell, however. A less powerful firearm can still have deadly consequences, so police visibility on all firearms would almost certainly have more safety benefits than partial visibility. The challenge for her is to demonstrate those extra benefits aren’t worth the extra investment.
The review was due to be completed months ago, but its findings are yet to be released.
It’s also a harder sell to have greater access to MSSAs, regardless of how strict the licensing regime would be.
National and NZ First might at least be sympathetic to allowing them for competitive shooting, as they have been in the past, but this is a fairness argument rather than one about improving public safety.
Luxon will also be aware of the potential for voter blowback, given the strong support in polls for keeping the registry (including among a majority of gun owners), as well as the MSSA ban (according to polling in the months following the Christchurch terror attack).
The rewrite of the Arms Act is planned to be completed by the end of the parliamentary term.
The National-Act coalition agreement also committed to transferring the Firearms Safety Authority out of police and to another department. This was due to the mistrust that had developed following several privacy breaches.
McKee has repeatedly said, though, that the real-time data sharing between the authority and frontline officers must be maintained.
Officials have warned that the potential cost of a new IT system to do this after moving the authority away from police could be huge - money the cash-strapped Government might be reluctant to spend.
Sign up to The Daily H, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Derek Cheng is a senior journalist who started at the Herald in 2004. He has worked several stints in the press gallery team and is a former deputy political editor.
