26 May, 2024 05:00 AM
By Derek Cheng
Senior Writer, NZ Herald
WARNING: This story deals with suicide. Please see below for help and crisis information.
Firearms licence holders aren’t seeking professional help if they are feeling mentally unwell out of fear their licences will be taken from them. With an estimated one in five people struggling with mental illness each year, that means up to 50,000 licence holders refusing to seek the help they might need. If untreated, is this a public health crisis waiting to unfold? Derek Cheng reports.
Uniformed police showed up at Glen Thurston’s home in a police car to take away his guns and his firearms licence.
“It was in front of my family, in front of the kids – just horrendous. I felt like stepping in front of the truck. It just made me so low.”
The Wānaka builder has a history of depression and suicidal thoughts, but believed he had done everything right. He’d been trying to wean himself off medication, with his doctor’s support, because he’d started them at the same time he gave up drinking and wondered if his betterment was due to the lack of alcohol rather than the antidepressants.
But he was in a dark place after three months, with his life feeling “all distorted again”. In October 2019, he went back to his doctor, who prescribed him medication again and referred him to a mental health service to help him get through the tough period.
“The [mental health] nurse said, ‘Are you suicidal?’ I said, ‘Well, yeah, I have those thoughts. I just don’t feel like being around.’ And then he said, ‘Do you have a firearms licence?’” That wasn’t why he was there, Thurston told the nurse, who responded – incorrectly – that “unfortunately by law” the police had to be notified.
“I went into hiding again and didn’t talk about what happened. All my friends have firearms, and if they found out what happened to me, I thought: ‘Shit, no one’s going to get help.’ It ain’t going to be the firearms killing them. It’s the lack of getting help.”
How large a problem that might become is unknown. There are about 240,000 people with firearms licences, and with one in five people suffering from mental illness or significant mental distress every year – that equates to about 50,000 licence holders a year.
Despite a pre-Budget $24 million announcement for Gumboot Friday’s free counselling, there remains widespread concern about the lack of services to help people before their mental struggles become severe. Is there now a large cohort who aren’t even seeking out those services because they fear losing their firearms licences, which for many is their ticket to the wellness of the outdoors?
“Pretty much everyone I know that has a firearms licence would hesitate,” Thurston said.
It’s a sentiment familiar to Council of Licensed Firearms Owners (Colfo) spokesman Hugh Devereux-Mack, who said licence holders tend to be men aged 30 to 80 – not exactly the demographic most eager to seek help in the first place.
They might be even more reluctant if they need firearms to put food on the table or to work on a farm, or if they think a health practitioner will refer them even if – like Thurston – they don’t think they’re a danger to themselves.
“The advice we’ve given when asked this very question from our membership is, basically, pick your physicians carefully,” Devereux-Mack said.
“A lot of New Zealanders have never had experiences with firearms, so they’re more prone to act defensively or emotively, especially when it comes to mental health. ‘It’s too hard for me to make this call. I’d rather tell the police and let them handle it, so it doesn’t come back on me as a practitioner’.”
GPs say this is a cautious approach, putting community safety first.
Nor do the majority of licence holders know about the option to surrender their licence and firearms, Devereux-Mack said, which would allow them to reapply when they felt “fit and proper” again – rather than face having their licence revoked.
Between 900 and 1000 licences are revoked every year, and those users cannot be near firearms for five years. Revocation can be appealed in the District Court, but that door is only open to those with the time and resources.
The gun law reforms following the Christchurch terror attack were meant to make us safer, but is this aspect doing more harm than good?
“People are avoiding going to the doctor, so you tell me if that’s the right outcome for public safety,” New Zealand Deerstalkers Association chief executive Gwyn Thurlow said.
“This was a natural consequence of the change to the gun laws. They put firearms owners in a compromised position: don’t go to the doctor and keep your firearms, or go to the doctor and you may lose them.”
‘The intent is to arm people with information’
Thurston’s encounter with police took place six months after the gun law changes following the 2019 Christchurch terror attack.
The first tranche of changes banned military-style semi-automatics and started a buy-back scheme, which saw over 60,000 firearms taken out of circulation.
The second tranche in 2020 included setting up a gun registry, clarifying the “fit and proper” test, and codifying health practitioners’ obligations. Thanks to NZ First, it also established an independent entity, Te Tari Pūreke Firearms Safety Authority, to oversee the new rules around firearms licences.
Those include your health practitioner being notified when you’re granted a licence. If a practitioner – after a consult, for example – thinks you might be a danger to yourself or others, they “must consider” notifying the authority (or police, if they think it’s an emergency). Reasons could be suicidal feelings, depression or anxiety, drug or alcohol abuse/dependency or neurological conditions such as epilepsy or multiple sclerosis.
The rationale is that any harm you might cause – including to yourself – can be much greater if you have access to guns. An academic paper looking into farm suicides from 2007 to 2015 found “suicide risk in farmers was exacerbated by ready access to firearms: almost 40 per cent of farm suicides involved firearms, compared to 8 per cent in the general population over the same time”.
Gun Control NZ spokeswoman Philippa Yasbek said that’s why firearms suicide needs to be taken seriously.
“We know there’s a much higher risk if there’s a firearm in the home than if there isn’t. We also know things like safe storage help. If your firearms are locked up properly and you’ve got your ammunition locked up separately, having to take those steps creates opportunities for you to pause and think about what you’re doing and will reduce the rate of completion, compared to if you stored your gun under your bed,” Yasbek said.
Between December 2020 and March 2024, 126 licence holders have been the subject of a health practitioner’s “report of concern”. The most recent data suggests there are about four reports every five weeks.
The authority can require a further assessment from a different health practitioner, or suspend or revoke your licence, which would lead to police knocking on your door. If your licence is revoked, you cannot apply for a new one for five years.
But there’s another option: voluntarily surrendering your firearms to police, a licensed dealer or another licence holder. You can also surrender your licence and reapply at any time when you feel “fit and proper” again.
“We don’t want people to be put off seeking help,” Firearms Safety Authority partnerships director Mike McIlraith said.
“Part of our push is to remind people that if you’re unwell, give up your licence, get well and then come back. The intent is to arm people with information that says: ‘You have an ability to intersect yourself, and that may not run the risk of losing your licence.’
“However if we do intersect with you, then you are suspended while revocation is considered. And if we end up revoking, you can’t touch guns for five years, so we really want to try to get [an intervention] before that point.”
Police take someone’s firearms if they’re suspended, and a new online licence-checker – now used about 90 times a day – means if a person took their physical licence to the local gun store, the retailer will see it’s invalid.
“Last year there was a licence holder who was suspended, who shortly after the suspension took the plastic card down to a gun dealer to buy a new gun and was prevented from doing so,” McIlraith said.
‘It’s why these regulations are in place’ – GPs
Royal New Zealand College of GPs (RNZCGP) medical director Dr Luke Bradford is “absolutely” aware of the potential for a looming crisis with up to tens of thousands of licence holders not seeking help.
“There is that risk, and obviously one we take very seriously – it’s why these regulations are in place,” Bradford said.
“But from my own experience, the vast majority of firearms licence holders take their responsibility very seriously, and are incredibly aware of the impact their weapons can have. And they’re actually very open to being guided about where they are in terms of mental health, and in regards to holding on to their guns at that time.”
Bradford said clear information was sent to members when the rules around health practitioner obligations changed at the end of 2020, and it remains available on the RNZCGP website. Learning about the “must consider” obligations is also part of the curriculum for registrars.
He wasn’t aware of any surveys to indicate how well understood – or misunderstood – the obligations are, but it’s “certainly something we can look at”. Surveys were a good way to prompt members to update their knowledge if necessary, he added.
“From a personal point of view, we are aware of the ability to voluntarily surrender. I’ve used it with one of my own patients this year who had an episode of unwellness, and he was very concerned about [potentially losing] his firearms licence – because his joy is hunting.
“But he was unwell, he acknowledged he was unwell, and we talked it through with his whānau and he agreed to hand over all of his guns to his son-in-law, who had a licence and safe.”
If the patient and their doctor disagree, he said it’s not unusual for the doctor to be cautious and put society above the patient.
“I suspect there will be cases where there is definite disagreement over voluntary surrendering, and if there isn’t that uptake, then the GP’s role is to act on the side of safety first. We always talk about being the patient’s advocates, but in certain instances, we become society’s advocates, and this is one of them. Driving licences is one of the others,” Bradford said.
“That’s obviously difficult because it can fracture what needs to be a strong relationship, and at a time when the patient needs it most.”
Thurston is the first to admit that some people need to have their guns taken off them.
“But there’s people like myself. I was no threat and I was fit and proper. I’d gone back to the doctor because I saw the signs.
“They don’t have to take your licence. I would have surrendered my licence voluntarily, but that wasn’t an option in 2019. I still would have been able to do my job [working on a high-country farm station at the time], or go hunting with the kids with a [licensed] friend.”
53 summits for 53 suicides a year
At the end of 2022, Thurston launched his Turn The Corner campaign: climbing Lake Hāwea’s Corner Peak (a 17km round-trip with 1750m elevation gain) every day for 53 days, each day representing one of the 53 deaths from suicide in the construction industry every year.
It wasn’t to raise money but awareness and, more importantly, to open up conversations among people who, like him following his police visit, might have gone into hiding. The campaign struck a chord in the industry and among locals – including many firearms licence holders. On the final day, 311 other people joined Thurston on his climb.
“As a builder, I’ve seen the stoic attitude there and how people don’t want to talk. I’ve created a space where they can, but everyone can step up and help their mates have open conversations – so if you’re not ready to go to counselling, at least talk to your mates.
“It’s a case of trying to create that awareness and support network among friends.”
Thurston’s efforts saw him awarded a “local hero” medal in the 2024 Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year awards. He took that momentum and started Mental Hunts, with hunting guide Sam Manson, to support firearms licence holders so they know they can seek help without the prospect of losing their licence. It also offers tips to new hunters.
“We want to encourage people not only to speak up if they’re struggling, but also to get into nature to reap all the benefits it has to offer. And if they’re really bad and scared they’re going to lose their licence, say ‘leave your guns at my house and get help’, or surrender your licence and you can apply at any point to get it back – and at least you can still go hunting under supervision.”
Thurston doesn’t harbour any resentment for what happened to him, nor is he necessarily pushing for a law change. He is actively working with the health sector, police, the hunting and firearms communities and the Firearms Safety Authority to “get the facts out”.
It’s filling a blind spot. There’s lot of information on websites for those looking for it, but very little proactive education.
Nicole McKee: Gun law changes have made us less safe
Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee, a former Colfo spokeswoman, is aware of gun owners not getting help “for fear they will be visited by the Armed Offenders Squad for doing so”.
“We need to strike a better balance where practitioners continue to raise red flags, but also where individuals feel they can also get help when they need it,” McKee told the Herald last month.
At the time she was yet to receive advice on the issue, but now she appears less certain about whether the law needs to be changed. Answering a follow-up question last week in writing, she said if a health practitioner thinks a condition can be managed with medication, then “the Firearms Safety Authority does not need to get involved”.
“I will be monitoring this requirement [for health practitioners to consider a referral] as part of reform of the Arms Act to ensure that it is not discouraging licence holders from seeking medical care.”
The Health Information Privacy Code 2020 already allowed health agencies to disclose information to prevent or lessen a serious threat to the life or health of an individual, McKee added.
Asked if the gun law changes since the Christchurch terror attack have had a positive impact on public safety, she said they targeted the wrong people, which had contributed to an increase in gun crime and made the public less safe.
“Between May 2022 and… May 2023, members on the National Gangs List committed, on average, 2.83 firearm offences every single day. Those in illegal possession and using firearms for criminal activities were not made the target of those legislative changes and I consider this a reason for the increase in gun crime. An increase in gun crime has not had a positive impact on public safety,” McKee said.
The increase in gun crime started years before the law reforms, rising between 2014 and 2020, then falling for a year during the Covid lockdowns, before rising again between 2021 and 2023. There were 2374 convicted charges for Arms Act and other firearms-related offences last year, an 8 per cent increase compared to 2020 – more than double the 3 per cent rise in the adult population over that period.
McKee said the Government was targeting the right people with several new offences and police powers to tackle gangs. Ministry of Justice officials have said there is no evidence these will improve public safety and some of them may even have the opposite effect. Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has disagreed with this advice, adding that the measures were what governing parties had campaigned on.
The National-Act coalition agreement commits to rolling back the regulations for gun clubs and shooting ranges, reviewing the gun registry (set to begin next month), and rewriting the Arms Act by the end of the parliamentary term.
McKee was a vociferous opponent of the gun law changes following the Christchurch terror attack, but she will need to convince both National and NZ First before she will be able to follow through with Act’s wish to make changes around military-style semi-automatic firearms, or to axe the gun registry.
SUICIDE AND DEPRESSION
Where to get help:
• Lifeline: Call 0800 543 354 or text 4357 (HELP) (available 24/7)
• Suicide Crisis Helpline: Call 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO) (available 24/7)
• Youth services: (06) 3555 906
• Youthline: Call 0800 376 633 or text 234
• What’s Up: Call 0800 942 8787 (11am to 11pm) or webchat (11am to 10.30pm)
• Depression helpline: Call 0800 111 757 or text 4202 (available 24/7)
• Helpline: Need to talk? Call or text 1737
If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111
Derek Cheng is a senior journalist who started at the Herald in 2004. He has worked several stints in the press gallery team and is a former deputy political editor.
