Proposed firearms law change will endanger the public - Mosque attack inquest told

Separating the Firearms Safety Authority from police - as the government is proposing - will be "horrible" and raise the risk to the public, a director of the Firearms Safety Authority says .

The comments were made to the inquest into the worshippers killed during the Christchurch terror attack.

It took a terrorist about a quarter of an hour to massacre 51 people at Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre in March 2019. His primary weapons were two AR-15-style semi-automatic centrefire rifles equipped with high-capacity magazines.

He legally bought the rifles after obtaining his firearms licence, starting the process within weeks of moving to New Zealand from Australia in August 2017.

Magazines were not regulated and could be bought by anyone, even without a licence.

Firearms Safety Authority director of partnerships Mike McIlraith told the inquest separating the regulator from police would raise the risk to the public.

"If the regulator - Te Tari Pūreke-Firearms Safety Authority - was to be separated from police, the harm risk will be significant, significantly increased."

While some had raised issues with the two entities not being independent, McIlraith said the authority used the support services of police, such as finance and human resources. But the authority had a "ring-fenced budget, and in recent government budget considerations, ours was left alone".

"We can focus on the regulatory outcome as one of the system's pillars," McIlraith told the inquest.

"Police focus on the criminal, Customs on the border, SIS on the higher-level risks. And so from the systems perspective, it's all connected now and to take it out - yeah, it will be horrible."

The authority had access to all police systems, and to separate the two would create legislative and privacy dilemmas, he said.

But separating the authority from police was part of the National Party and Act coalition agreement.

"Transfer responsibility for the Arms Act 1983, policy and regulation to the Ministry of Justice, and transfer the Firearms Safety Authority, administrator of the Act, to another department such as the Department of Internal Affairs," the agreement said.

It formed phase three of the government's overhaul of gun laws, which was being overseen by Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee, a former spokesperson for the Council of Licensed Firearms Owners.

McIlraith worked in firearms licensing for the police prior to the creation of the Firearms Safety Authority. The authority was created by the Labour government's gun reforms in the wake of the Christchurch mosque shootings.

Earlier this month, he detailed to the inquest how licensing staff were stretched and operating in an outdated and archaic system prior to the shootings.

Successive governments failed to adequately legislate for the risk of semi-automatic firearms from the time the firearms registry was scrapped in 1983 until the shootings in 2019, he said.

Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee said changes introduced in 2019-20 "have not made New Zealanders safer".

"Our intention is to improve the legislation keeping safety at the heart of everything we do. Licenced Firearms Owners and the New Zealand public have demonstrated a continued low trust and confidence in NZ Police to regulate legally held firearms," she told RNZ.

"Part of our proposed changes include moving the Firearms Safety Authority away from Police allowing them to focus on enforcing our laws. By distancing the FSA, we are also following through on the recommendation of the Royal Commission of Inquiry, which called for the regulator/administrator to be independent."

The Royal Commission of Inquiry made no such recommendation. It directed its recommendations to police or another "relevant entity".

Two-thirds of licence applications did not have enough information

Vetting officers did not record enough information on 65 percent of firearms licence applicants for arms officers to make a decision about whether a licence should be granted, a review of approved licenses carried out in the wake of the terror attack found.

The review of 139 approved firearms licences was carried out by senior police officers in February 2020.

It was raised this morning at the inquest into the 51 worshippers murdered at Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre in March 2019.

Counsel assisting the coroner Ian Murray asked McIlraith if its findings meant almost two-thirds of licences reviewed were granted inappropriately.

"On my reading of that you found that almost two-thirds of the decisions to grant these 139 people firearms licences could not be justified on the basis of the information that you, as the reviewers, found on the interview documentation - correct?" Murray asked.

McIlraith responded the review was "very deliberate to have a close look at what our current state was based on those 139 files; he finding of the review was that 65 percent of vetting guides didn't have sufficient information on them".

"So that meant that in 65 percent of the cases firearms licences were granted when, objectively looking back, the arms officer didn't have enough information to make that decision - yes or no?" Murray pressed.

"I don't think it's as simple as yes or no," McIlraith responded.

"The review speaks to itself, notwithstanding NIA information as well that there is a gap there and I'm as true and I'm not trying to steer away from that. There is a big gap."

NIA referred to the police National Intelligence Application, which held information on people including interactions with police and criminal history.

McIlraith accepted NIA could not provide all the information needed for an arms officer to determine if a firearms licence applicant was a fit and proper person, as it only provided details about a person's risk that police were already aware of.

The inquest continues.

*This story has been updated clarify a quote from Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee. 

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