Police probe whether Brian Tamaki is ‘fit and proper’ to hold gun licence
Police are investigating whether Brian Tamaki remains “fit and proper” to possess firearms after incendiary online comments by the Destiny Church leader.
Tamaki said his gun licence was revoked two days ago, before police came to his rural Auckland home to confiscate hunting weapons this morning.
Police confirmed to the Herald that Tamaki was served a “temporary firearms licence suspension notice” today.
“This notice was served on the firearms licence holder. This took place without incident,” Counties Manukau district commander Superintendent Shanan Gray said.
Gray declined to comment on Tamaki’s case.
“However, generally speaking this sort of action is not uncommon.
“A person’s licence can be temporarily suspended while the firearms regulator investigates further, to ensure the licence holder remains ‘fit and proper’ to possess a firearm.”
Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki at his home in South Auckland. Photo / Jason Dorday
It comes after Tamaki made a reference on a recent podcast to using a shotgun to protect his family.
The controversial Christian leader also said “let’s purge New Zealand of Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims” in reference to claims that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was targeting Indian Christians with threats and violence.
“And, while we’re at it, if they’re burning churches down, why don’t we burn mosques and their temples down? Tit for tat,” Tamaki said on social media earlier this month.
Tamaki’s comments sparked opposition from religious, ethnic and multicultural leaders, while Act MP Dr Parmjeet Parmar said she asked police to investigate whether Tamaki broke the law.
Wellington Anglican priest Scottie Reeve told the Herald Tamaki wants to “mandate a vision of a theocracy”.
“There are two very different visions of Christianity,” Reeve said in a statement.
“There’s what Jesus put forward, where he talked about us ‘salting or seasoning the world’ as Christians and being a positive influence.
“Then there is Brian’s perspective, which we’re seeing come from [Donald] Trump and lots of his acolytes and folks around the world, which is instead of Christians being a positive influence on the world, we’re meant to ‘dominate and control’ the world.
“Jesus steps into people’s lives with hope; Brian instead wants to mandate a vision of a theocracy.
“We are in a moment globally of fear and uncertainty – economically, politically, socially. And in those moments, as you saw in the 1930s and in other moments in history, we tend to look for someone to blame, and often migrants and foreigners, those who are different from us, are an easy place to scapegoat.”
Reeve added that Jesus himself was “a migrant and a refugee in his life”.
“If Brian doesn’t think there’s room for migrants, then he’s actually saying there’s no room for Jesus.”
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