Wellington, May 16 NZPA - The Mountain Safety Council does not support changes to New Zealand's gun ownership laws in the wake of last week's fatal Napier siege.

On Thursday Napier gunman Jan Molenaar opened fire on three unarmed police officers who were carrying out a cannabis search warrant at his Chaucer Road home.

He killed Senior Constable Len Snee and seriously wounded Senior Constables Bruce Miller and Grant Diver and a man who tried to disarm him, Len Holmwood.

The shootings and the subsequent siege which ended after Molenaar shot himself has provoked questions about gun ownership in New Zealand. Mountain Safety Council spokesman Mike Spray said that while such tragic incidents sent shock waves throughout New Zealand, such events were rare in the country's history.

"This rarity can be put down to progress in firearm safety education and New Zealand's very high standard of firearm control," he said. "The Arms Act 1983, which defines New Zealand's firearms law, promotes both the control and safe use of firearms. Through character vetting, licensing, establishment of safety standards and education, recreational firearm use is both widespread and predominately safe.

"In the past 15 years homicides involving firearms have dropped 35 percent and non-intentional firearm incidents have dropped during the past 40 years from an average of one a week down to an average of one a month."

Mr Spray said firearms licensing was predicated on a person being fit and proper to possess firearms and fit and proper status was determined through a thorough vetting process.

Firearms licence applicants must meet the requirements for security of their firearms so that children and the opportunist thief were not able to access them.

"Firearms licensing is also determined by the applicant receiving formal firearms safety training and passing a theoretical test on safety and their legal obligations."

Mr Spray said comparing the number of incidents to the amount of recreational firearms activity indicated that the vast majority of firearms owners in New Zealand were responsible users.

"It would be unwarranted for this incident, caused by an unlicensed and unlawful gun owner, to provoke a stern reaction against the legitimate and safe use of firearms in New Zealand," Mr Spray said.

Earlier this week gun safety advocate Philip Alpers said the siege was "a perfect illustration of how the police have lost control over the (unlicensed firearms) situation".

There are about 225,000 licensed firearm owners with about 1.2 million guns in New Zealand.

Police did not know exactly how many gun owners were without licences and Mr Alpers, who works at the University of Sydney lecturing in gun safety, said police had "no idea of how many guns are out there".

In 1992, the Government got rid of lifetime licences in favour a 10-year system.

Despite an advertising campaign run in 2002, nearly 50,000 people still had not registered for the new licence.

Molenaar had held general and collector's firearms licences but was one of the 50,000 who saw them expire in 2002.

Council of Licensed Firearms Owners member Trevor Dykes said tougher laws would not have stopped Molenaar obtaining weapons and cautioned against a "knee-jerk reaction".

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