Auckland Council has audited the firearms it owns and is making changes to the way it stores, uses and maintains firearms, in accordance with new legislation.
The audit was carried out by the council’s Health, Safety and Wellbeing and Community Facilities teams. It looked at the way core council functions, like animal management, biosecurity pest control, parks and our farming operations, require firearms to perform essential tasks, and the practices firearms users are following.
Director Customer and Community Services Ian Maxwell says that the legislative change and the council’s subsequent audit has created opportunities for reviewing our practices and making sure they are aligned across the organisation.
“We wanted to make sure that the council was proactively responding to the new firearm laws that came into effect on 12 April, so we kicked off our audit immediately afterwards.
“As part of the audit, we inspected and assessed the management and storage of firearms and ammunition, and interviewed those staff who operate and manage them.
“This has resulted in a comprehensive view of council-owned firearms – we’re now looking at the recommendations from the audit.”
The next step will be to review the recommendations from the audit, and work on implementing them.
The audit identified five firearms that are not compliant with the new legislation. These will be disposed of in accordance with Police instructions (when they become available).
“We’ve followed the advice of the Police and have been working closely with them regarding the non-compliant firearms,” says Ian.
