New Zealand

Gun lobby seeks legal advice on new legislation

06:36 am on 5 May 2019

A gun lobby has asked for legal advice to make sure firearm owners are fully compliant with strict laws that ban most semi-automatics, magazines and parts.

A selection of firearms which are now prohibited, on display to media at a police press conference. Photo: RNZ / Ana Tovey

Last month parliament passed an arms amendment bill prompted by the Christchurch mosque attacks which killed 51 people.

The Council of Licensed Firearms Owners has previously said the change would affect most - if not all - gun owners.

Its newly-elected chair, Michael Dowling, said it had asked a lawyer to go over the legislation to be clear about who and what weapons were affected.

"We want to make sure that being compliant with the legislation is easy - and that's what we're trying to address - because we don't want people to be technically uncompliant and end up breaking the law as a result of that."

Mr Dowling said the legal work would probably take three to four weeks.