From: John Howat, [EMAIL PROTECTED] DOMINION Newspaper Wellington New Zealand 27th July 2000. HAWKINS LOOKS AT SCRAPPING LAST YEARS GUN BILL By TRACY WAKINS Controversial gun laws proposed by the previous government might be abandoned, it was confirmed yesterday. Police Minister George Hawkins said a decision would be made in the next few weeks whether to scrap the legislation and start again, or rewrite it. The changes proposed by National did not go far enough in meeting recommendations of High Court judge Sir Thomas Thorp whose 1997 firearms review followed a series of high profile shootings and urged the banning of military style semi automatic weapons, Mr Hawkins said. The Arms Amendment Bill, introduced by National late last year, has attracted thousands of submissions, most of them opposed to measures including a requirement for owners to register individual firearms, or face a $500 instant fine. Gun owners say the requirement will penalise responsible owners but do nothing to deal with the tens of thousands of illegal firearms. Others have criticised the bill for stopping short of the main recommendations of Sir Thomas's report, including a buy-back of military-style semi-automatics, cutting firearms licence periods from 10 to three years, and setting up an independent firearms: licensing authority. It was estimated the buyback alone would cost $20 million and the other measures could push the cost of Sir Thomas's recommendations as high as $60 million. Mr Hawkins said yesterday the bill was a National Party measure which he understood they were now balking at. "My understanding is the National Party has gone cold on their own bill. They've had a lot of submissions with not great numbers in support of it. "What I'm doing -- along with Justice Minister Phil Goff and Disarmament and Arms Control Minister Matt Robson -- is having another look. I want to see whether the bill can be amended sufficiently in its present form or whether we have to start from scratch again." Mr Hawkins said any gun legislation needed to tackle the issues raised by serious shootings in New Zealand, including the 1990 Aramoana massacre, in which 13 people died, and the Raurimu massacre in the central North Island in 1997. "I think the real problem with the [proposed legislation] that is there now is that the last government didn't do one thing or the other ... they tried to sit on the fence, and fences and guns aren't a very good combination. The bill overall just didn't do what Thorp suggested needed to be done." -- NZPA John Howat -- So let's review, the last Government introduced a Bill which received thousands of irate responses so the new Government thinks what is needed is an even tougher Bill? And wasn't the 1992 Arms (Amendment) Act passed in response to the Aramoana massacre? Steve. Cybershooters website: http://www.cybershooters.org List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________________________________ T O P I C A The Email You Want. http://www.topica.com/t/16 Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Your Favorite Topics
