Police Commissioner Mike Bush appeared before the Justice Select Committee and spoke about gangs with firearms and the gun buyback scheme.

Thousands of semi-automatic firearms are being imported to New Zealand so gun owners can re-arm after weapons used in the March 15 Christchurch terror attack were banned.



Gun dealers have responded quickly to sweeping law changes which banned most semi-automatic firearms in April, and have been granted licences to import nearly 7000 semi-automatic rifles which remained permitted.

The number of import permits, issued by police, show firearms owners are keen to replace guns headed to the smelter with .22 calibre semi-automatic "bunny guns".

The influx comes as Parliament considers further firearm regulations and a December 20 deadline for a gun buyback scheme looms.

RICKY WILSON/STUFF Firearm owners have been handing over semi-automatic weapons now banned across the country. December 20 is the last day for the Government's buyback scheme.

READ MORE:

* Police Minister questions if fewer banned firearms in community than expected

* Aim for gun reform to be law by first anniversary of Christchurch shooting

* What's going on with gangs? Influx of organised criminals is 'destroying families'

* National opposes new gun law, Auditor-General probe into buyback scheme

* KPMG report warned Government to be cautious over gun buyback scheme costs



Police have so far collected 32,000 firearms from gun owners, of which 21,000 are military-style semi-automatic (MSSA) rifles.

Only 4000 of these were part of the 14,000 guns that already formally had to be registered with police prior to the April law change.

The smaller-calibre .22 rifles, which can legally hold up to 10 bullets and can resemble military-style firearms, escaped the clampdown as they are considered safer than larger calibre weapons and useful for killing farm pests.

In the six months prior to April's law change, import permits for the same .22 semi-automatic rifles totalled 1000 — a seventh of the import permits sought afterwards.

Critics say the firearms still pose a risk to the community. A Stuff investigation, The Homicide Project, showed that of 144 gun homicide incidents since 2004, two thirds involved .22 calibre rifles and shotguns.

Massey University senior lecturer Hera Cook, a member of lobby group Gun Control NZ, said New Zealand should have further restricted access of the .22 guns to farmers and other specific occupations — as Australia did.

Cook said a combination of new firearm control measures, such as a firearm register, would assist with mitigating the risk such guns posed.

"The gun lobby should stop moaning, there are perfectly acceptable substitutes for the guns that are being handed in, and gun owners are buying them."

STACY SQUIRES/STUFF A steady flow of firearm owners kicked off the first gun buy-back session at Riccarton Racecourse in Christchurch.

Council of Licensed Firearm Owners (Colfo) secretary Nicole McKee was not surprised by the uptake of .22 calibre rifles, and said the guns were likely being used for pest control.

Colfo knew of more than 50 people who had been denied a licence to use banned semi-automatic rifles for pest control, she said, so many were turning to the available .22 rifles.

"They're being told they can do the work with a bolt-action [rifle].

"We do have concerns that a .22 calibre will not be the most humane calibre for larger pests ... We've had pest controllers out there that are failing to dispatch the animals in a humane way."

McKee said firearm laws that targeted unlawful owners, such as firearm prohibition orders, were needed to reduce risk. Some .22 semi-automatic rifles were designed to look like military weapons for ergonomic reasons, she said.

Police have approved 5395 permits for importing 137,000 firearms between April 2018 and September 2019, figures obtained under the Official Information Act show. But, only a fifth of these permits have been used.

Police Commissioner Mike Bush, last week attending a select committee hearing on new arms law, said import permits were not a useful measure in assessing the total number of firearms in New Zealand.

"Permits to import doesn't mean they were imported. I don't think you can base anything on that, people can apply for a permit, no-one knows if they actually followed through on that," he told MPs.

On Monday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced the Government's intention to introduce "firearm prohibition orders", which would restrict certain people with criminal records from owning firearms or associating with people who are holding firearms.