Budget funding of $44.9 million will establish an independent firearms regulator and implement New Zealand’s new Arms Act, preventing what Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee says would have been a major hike in licence fees.

“Without this investment, the firearms system faced a major funding shortfall that could have increased firearms licence fees to up to six and a half times their current level,” she says.

The funding creates Firearms Safety and Education New Zealand, which takes administrative and licensing functions away from New Zealand Police, leaving police solely responsible for enforcement. McKee says trust in police to run the regulatory side had broken down.

“What a lot of licensed firearm owners were telling me is that they felt like they were being treated as criminals, like they were a terrorist in the waiting.

“With the new regulator, we start to treat licensed firearm owners again as the customer, and also treat them with a bit of respect.”

McKee says the 2019 and 2020 Arms Act amendments that followed the Christchurch terror attack went too far.

“I think there was an absolute overreach, I think it went too far, and I think it went too fast as well.”

McKee says pricing people out of compliance creates a public safety risk, with licence holders already paying for gun safes and home security.

“If we start pricing people out of being able to afford to get a firearms licence, price them out of being able to afford to comply, then why would they? And why should they?

“They just want to go out into the bush, hunt and put food on the table.”

The new Arms Act contains more than 55 policy changes, with work under way to reduce the 40-page licence application form.

“I think it’s too much and we need to have a good look at that.”

About $4.7 million goes to a new Firearms Licensing Review Committee, giving licence holders an independent forum to challenge suspension or revocation decisions before going to court.

“What we have at the moment is New Zealand Police make the decision on whether or not to suspend or revoke, and if you appeal that, then you go to those same people to hear whether or not they’ve made a mistake, so marking their own homework.”

The new three-person panel will include a lawyer, a firearms community representative and someone with regulatory experience, with hearings conducted online.

McKee expects the new Arms Act to pass by August.

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