https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics ... eform.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/christ ... e-shooting" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;When asked how the Government would respond to gang members who refuse to hand over their weapons, Peters said the message will be clear: "You will be handing them back to the Government or some lawful authority.
"We don't plan to fail on this... the process will apply to them, the same for any law abiding citizen in this country who has an armament that is legal but is about to be made illegal."
Fatu admitted that members of the Mongrel Mob carry illegal firearms, and Peters was questioned on why the Government thinks gangs would comply with the new laws when they haven't in the past.
"We intend to enforce the law and it's not a matter of cooperation - it's a matter of being obliged to conform with the law of this country or be operating illegally for which there will be consequences," Peters said.
Ask yourself – Sonny Fatu says – how many mass shootings in New Zealand have been committed by gang members? None, he says.
"And how many have been committed by someone of Pākehā origin? Many if we include the terror raids of marae when colonialists stole land and killed women and children, but in more recent times we have Aramoana and now this – the murder of 50 innocent people."
Fatu is president of the Waikato branch of the Mongrel Mob.
Neither Fatu nor Black Power's O'Reilly hide from the fact their gangs have guns – some of them illegal. And neither is willing to concede they should turn them in after the Christchurch attack.
"Will gangs get rid of their weapons? No," Fatu says. "Because of who we are, we can't guarantee our own safety."
A report by the Law and Order Select Committee in April 2017 described unlawful firearms possession is an integral aspect of New Zealand's gang culture. A 2014 police analysis showed 44 per cent of gang members had been charged with firearms offences.
Ethnic gangs like the Mongrel Mob and Black Power are involved mainly in gang-on-gang violence, according to Fatu. They also police their own members if they step out of line.
"It's not in our culture to inflict harm on innocent people like what happened in Christchurch," Fatu says.
"The attacks between our organisations are gang-on-gang, they do not involve the non-gang members. Although there may be peripheral damage and violence that occasionally spills out into the public eye, it is absolutely and without intention for any harm to be caused to non-gang members."
