The Council of Licensed Firearm Owners (COLFO) has supplied an OIA to the President of the NZ Police Association, Chris Cahill, which reveals a claim he made on live television was severely incorrect.
On TVNZ Breakfast’s show of May 15, 2023, Cahill claimed that “the majority of criminals get their guns from unscrupulous firearms owners who buy them on their behalf, and on sell them”.
An Official Information Act response from Police, dated March 2020 (included below), has revealed the claim is seriously incorrect.
Police said that of 1,263 firearms seized in 2019, less than 17 were able to be traced back to a person who held a firearms licence. All 17 firearms had been reported stolen.
Even considering only the 559 firearms where Police identified a serial number, just 3% were traced back to a licensed owner.
The data strongly indicates licensed firearm owners are not the source of firearms for the majority of criminals as Cahill had claimed during the televised interview, which was also spread online.
COLFO has sent the OIA and an accompanying letter to the Police Association President as formal notice that he should not make that claim again in public now he is in possession of evidence to the contrary. COLFO is yet to receive a reply.
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