General policy statement
This Bill provides strong new powers for Police to make sure the most dangerous gang members don’t have firearms, while not putting unnecessary restrictions on legal gun owners. This Bill puts in place new Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPOs) which will apply to the toughest gang members with serious offending histories. Gang members won’t be able to hold firearms licences.
FPOs provide new powers for Police to search the persons, vehicles and premises of specified serious and violent gang members for firearms at any time. They will only apply to a very small group of the most dangerous gang offenders who have convictions for firearms offences and serious violence. A pool of eligible people will be based on criteria set out in this legislation and will include being a gang member, and having recent firearms or violence offences.
The Commissioner of Police will have the power to make an FPO in respect of these offenders and any decision made to make a FPO will be reviewable by the District Court. About 600 gang members will initially be eligible for a FPO however not all of those individuals will have an FPO issued straight away. Police will decide how to prioritise the most serious offenders within that group with the aim to prevent firearms being used in criminal activities.
The offending history and profile of these gang members makes it reasonable for Police to be able to check that they do not have access to guns, ammunition or firearms parts. The Police Commissioner will have to personally sign off on each order and any person subject to a FPO will have the ability to challenge this in Court. Currently all warrantless searches require specialist internal reporting and Police would be expected to continue reporting searches of persons, vehicles and premises under this regime.