Firearms Laws and Licensing

Since 2012, frontline vehicles have had a locked box in the passenger foot-well containing two loaded and holstered Glock 17s and, in the rear of the vehicle, a locked case with two Bushmaster ar type rifles.

That would be a 9mm glock
For the bushmaster i only found referance to the aos and are assuming its the same.

Bushmaster M4A3 carbine is equipped to shoot 7.62 mm rounds
New Zealand Police recruits receive one week of firearms training during their 16-week training course. Recruits practice shooting with the Glock pistol and Bushmaster rifle while wearing ear and eye protection.
After qualifying, police officers receive seven and a half days of weapons training each year. They also receive firearms retraining every six to twelve months

Edited by kruzaroad - 16 Dec 2024 at 10:18am

My 2 cents worth...

With regards to the cop who shot the bull.
I hate journalists who use provocative language to try and sensationalise everything they report on.
Its easy for someone who wasn't there to make assumptions and say "they should have done this or they should have done that..."
Its easy for someone who has never had to stand face to face with 500 kilograms of stressed/panicking/angry/rampaging??? beast to say "well you should have done this and you should have been using that".
Very easy...

The reality is, unless and you your-self have had to make quick decisions about the safety of others and make quick predictions of POSSIBLE out comes and potential disasters caused by unpredictable animals (no one can predict the future, but we can predict possible outcomes) and have to make considerations about the safety of (usually stupid) onlookers or the unsuspecting people in the cars driving at 70km/h who have no idea that a rampaging bull could run out in front of their vehicle, causing a 20 car pile up and killing how many...? Unless you have had personal experiences of being in situations like that, its difficult to fully appreciate what the cop had to consider, assess and make decisions about.

As someone who has training, and experience, in having to deal with life threatening situations from charging dangerous game, and being responsible for the safety and well being of others in those situations, from what I've read in the article I believe the cop:
A - would have assessed the situation and made his decisions based on the safety of people in the area.
B - made the correct decision to shoot the animal (immobilise the threat that was running around).
C - used what ever means was available to him at the time.
D - did well to immobilise a moving animal of that size with a "semi auto rifle", intended for immobilising people, not really suitable for a 500kg moving animal, but was likely the only tool he had available to get the job done then and there.

In a situation where a large and unpredictable animal has become a danger to the people in the immediately vicinity, once the decision has been taken to drop that animal and the first shot has been fired, I dont care how many shots it takes, you dont stop until that animal is down.
In the movies it is very romantic to drop a charging animal at close range with one shot, but in reality its quite different.
It is only very experienced professional hunters, those with nerves of steel, or the very lucky who get it right on the first shot.
There is no shame in someone who has had no training or experience in dealing with large aggravated/rampaging animals, requiring 12 shots from an inadequate caliber rifle to immobilise and dispatch the problem animal. Especially if he got it down and done in 10 seconds.


With regards to the police not needing firearms licences but being allowed to handle and use firearms in NZ...
That dosen't make much sense. Maybe a firearms licence is only required to own, buy or sell firearms, and is not necessary if you are only using someone elses fire arm?
I'm assuming that the service weapons the police use are owned by the state and not by the individual officers them selves?

With regards to the firearms training that police get before being considered "qualified" to handle a firearm...
In all fairness, 81 hours of training, 300 rounds to get qualified on handguns, 250 rounds to get qualified on semi-auto rifle, and a week of re-training every year, is, to be honest, 81 hours and 550 rounds of hands on supervised practical training MORE then any member of the public gets before being granted a firearms licence and allowed to OWN and USE any firearm they want!

A member of the public can get a firearms licence by doing the standard 15 minute multiple choice test and attending a 30min handling demonstration... they don't even need to fire a single shot or have their saftey assessed while holding a firearm and using live ammunition!
I'd say even with out requiring a fire arms licence, the cops 81 hours of training and hundreds of supervised training rounds, in a safe environment on a supervised firing range before they are "qualified" to use their weapons in public in the line duty, is light years ahead of the training and experience that the average new firearm licence owner has before he is allowed to buy his first firearm.

Well, my view with the Police is if there is a high possibility of firearms they get the AOS in. Standard training is training for defence not expertise. With lots of rules and policies and only the best will make AOS and even then I think after a heap of psych testing but many of them are skilled hunters as well.

We have basically very simple rules and areas we are permitted to use FAs - all but zero little skill is required to be safe with firearms and that's hat we're talking about here. The Cop and cow episode may have been that Cop's worst nightmare and he had to do what he had to do. You or I may have done a better job but only the cop was lawfully allowed to do the job in that public place.

I actually don't think police FA training etc is at all relevant to our civilian type possession and use of firearms. Only in exceptional circumstances including that we fear for our safety with good reason, will our legal system accept our use of firearms outside the usual strict rules. Or in fact any lethal force.

I'm comfortable with cops having the legal power to use firearms when they have to protect themselves or the public, with the training they have which I agree is more training than most of us have had. And cop training is not going to help them hunt game or pests except of the armed and very dangerous human variety.  

Again though, I think we all agree on more than we disagree with. 

For this forum/air guns, the issue I struggle with is should unsupervised air rifle possession and use require a FAL. I don't know but I do know that my parents Ok with us shooting targets with a BSA Meteor in the back yard when they were home from age 11 or 12 on (in theory at least only while they were home but they were well aware we used it when they were. especially after my dumb brother put a slug graze in a wooden window sill while shooting birds on the lawn... :-)  )

But a much higher power air rifle - springer or PCP is a very different weapon dangerous at many times the range of a low powered air Meteor - and there was nothing more powerful than the rare higher powered BSAs in NZ in those days, but there were a lot of low powered inaccurate Slavias.

I actually think higher powered air rifles probably should require a FAL and to be on the FA register because it's only a matter of time before the gangs wise up to 30 cal beast springers if they haven't already and we know some of those would be a bit of a problem for anyone receiving a close range head shot.

It's not that difficult to get a licence. And it pisses me off that FA laws basically just keep the honest people honest given the gummint dropped the ball big time decades ago by dropping licencing of FAs at the Cop Shop and allowed man killers into NZ in large numbers. 

But it seems to me more and more crazy people even here in Godzone like to either carelessly play with lethal weapons or use them in crimes so I accept the need for strong laws unless we want to be like the U.S. where department stores sell all kinds of man killers and the right to carry arms is seen as a human right (FFS!!!) hence the US continues to have cowboys all over the show, some with maniac mass murderous impulses.

I just can't see any valid argument that our quality air rifles are anything but lethal weapons.