Rural women's group raise concerns over gun licensing processes

A group which represents rural women has raised concerns about gun licence applicants being interviewed in the presence of their spouses. Photo / 123RF

A group which represents rural women has raised concerns about gun licence applicants being interviewed in the presence of their spouses.

The issue was raised by Rural Woman New Zealand at the March meeting of the Firearms Community Advisory Forum (FCAF), where police asked if it was standard practice to interview a family referee in the presence of the person seeking the licence.

It is police policy to ensure interviews of referees are undertaken in isolation away from the applicant to ensure answers are as genuine as possible and not influenced by others.

Rural Woman New Zealand president Gill Naylor, of Central Otago, told the Otago Daily Times the organisation had heard of a few cases where applicants were interviewed in front of their spouses over the past couple of years, but had no solid data to ascertain if it was common practice.

Good vetting practices were important to keep women and children safe by ensuring that licences were given to those who were fit and proper.

"We believe that someone who is abusive towards their family is not fit and proper," Naylor said.

Raising the query helped make sure police were keeping on top of training vetting agents and evaluating their processes, Naylor said.

Police director of partnerships, arms safety and control Superintendent Mike McIlraith told attendees at the meeting applicants should never be interviewed in the presence of their spouses and called for examples to be provided to police.

The FCAF was set up last year as part of the Government's efforts to reform New Zealand's firearms licensing regime in the wake of the March 15 terror attacks.

McIlraith told the ODT no examples were provided and the issue was not raised again at a subsequent FCAF meeting.

"Significant refresher training has been undertaken in the past twelve months for our vetting staff to ensure they are equipped and enabled to do the job required of them," he said.

Training around interviews had included the need to ensure interviews are conducted with no one else present, McIlraith said.

He said the new firearms regulator would also work to ensure interviewing policy was consistently practised nationwide.