The Thorpe report and current police practice
The Thorpe report
Review of Firearms Control in New Zealand - June 1997 | New Zealand Police
This is the source of most police policy that makes an attack on the ownership and use of law-abiding citizens, who have previously been vetted by police as fit and proper to own firearms.
It must be compulsory reading for any firearms owner wishing to understand the police persecution of the firearms owning public through the imposition of policy. In a lot of cases this policy is unsupported by the Law around firearms. The main piece of legislation is the Arms Act 1983 and the Arms Regulations 1992. There are other bits and pieces in other legislation such as the Transport act that police can use to persecute firearms owners.
This report resulted in the National Govt. of the day introducing an amendment to the 1983 act that would have resulted in universal registration of all firearms in New Zealand. This was Arms Amendment (2) 1999 Arms Amendment Bill (No.2) 1999 (312-1)
Thousands of NZers made submission to the LaO committee, so many that Parliament had to hold committee meetings in the main centres to hear those who wished to speak to their submission in person. There had been a change in Govt. in the interim and the Labour Govt of the day, after hearing the report from the LaO committee, decided not to proceed with the legislation.
The policy planners at NZ police take no notice of this defeat for universal registration, but continue with policy designed to prepare the way for universal registration. These include recording firearms details when examining security, and the capture of firearms details on their mail-order form. Both examples are illegal behaviour but police get away with it through knowing that most people are ignorant of the law, or if aware don't won’t to be seen as difficult. The difficult can be threatened on the assumption that they will not desire, or cannot afford to challenge the police in court.
Forum members not familiar with the contents of the report, should take the time to read the full report. It will help understanding as to why and where particular police policy arose.
