Shotgun Purchasers To Have Permits

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31782, 12 September 1968, Page 16

Shotgun Purchasers To Have Permits

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, September 11. Shotgun purchasers will shortly have to obtain permits from the police to buy the weapons under regulations to be brought down by the Government, the Minister of Police (Mr Allen) told Parliament tonight.

Under the same regulations all future purchasers of rifles, shotguns or any other firearms will have to satisfy the police that they are competent to handle them.

“In these regulations there will be provision for a form of testing,” Mr Allen said during the second reading debate on the Arms Amendment Bill. Over the last two or three years the police had discussed with rifle clubs, pistol dubs and deerstalking clubs throughout New Zealand the type of test which a firearm purchaser would have to go through. Testing would be carried out by police arms officers and by civilians appointed by

the police to act for them in areas where there were no police arms officers. The Minister said details would be announced later. Referring to shotguns, he said these weapons could at present be bought without permits. Bill Welcomed "The man we are trying to get by the regulation is the man who purchases a shotgun for illegal purposes.” Even though purchasers of shotguns would have to obtain a permit to buy from the police, they would not have to register the shotguns as was the case with rifles. The Leader of the Opposition (Mr Kirk) welcomed the bill but urged the Government to go the “whole distance” and introduce legislation which would require all firearms to be registered.

“Anyone desperate enough to contemplate armed robbery is not going to hesitate to let off a shotgun he obtained legally,” said Mr Kirk. Pistol Permits

He said the tight control of firearms had done more than anything else to keep armed robbery to a minimum. "The arming of the police only in exceptional circumstances is an important factor in the relative absence of armed crime in New Zealand,” he said.

Mr Kirk expressed concern that pistol permits were granted to private security firms.

He said the carrying of firearms should be restricted to the police force, who were trained in the proper use of weapons.