{"id":563579,"date":"2026-08-09T08:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T08:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/563579\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T08:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T08:12:10","slug":"destiny-church-leader-brian-tamaki-responds-to-firearms-licence-being-revoked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/563579\/","title":{"rendered":"Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki responds to firearms licence being revoked"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI\u2019ve been a hunter for many years since I was 16 or 17 when I started work in the farm and forestry, also with firearms.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been a hunter. [I] hunt for meat, not for really trophies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tamaki said he isn\u2019t even allowed to be with another licensed firearm owner, but that losing his gun licence was secondary to what God was doing for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cLosing my licence, who cares?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DestinyDestiny Church leader Brian Tamaki is an avid hunter.<\/p>\n

It comes after a post on social media on Saturday when the church leader said authorities had told him he could never hold a gun again.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter holding a firearms licence for many years without issue, police have now decided I am no longer a \u2018fit and proper person\u2019,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

He claimed it was because of his criticism of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was speaking passionately. I was protesting. I was challenging what I believed needed to be challenged.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am now prohibited not only from possessing my own firearms, but from possessing or using a firearm even under the supervision of a licensed firearms holder.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis follows the temporary suspension issued to me on 30 June and the subsequent submissions made by my lawyer opposing that suspension.\u201d<\/p>\n

In early July, Tamaki claimed his guns were seized because the Government and police were \u201cbending over backwards\u201d before the Indian Prime Minister\u2019s visit to New Zealand.<\/p>\n

Police warned Tamaki at the time that they believe comments he made on his podcast were \u201cencouraging violence and significant property damage\u201d, according to documents the Destiny Church leader has published online.<\/p>\n

Tamaki has strongly criticised Modi in a publicly posted podcast video, accusing him of targeting Christians in India and allowing churches to be razed. He then called for mosques and temples in New Zealand to be burned down in a \u201ctit for tat\u201d move.<\/p>\n

He then claimed he did not mean what he said<\/a> and was speaking figuratively and claimed the documents show diplomatic pressure from India was behind the move.<\/p>\n

Firearms Safety Authority acting executive director Superintendent Bruce Bird said the police were unable to comment on an individual case or licensing decisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, speaking generally, decisions about suspending or revoking a firearms licence are based on a legal standard of whether a person is \u2018fit and proper\u2019 to possess a firearm.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bird said fit and proper decisions were guided by circumstances outlined in section 24A of the Arms Act.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI\u2019ve been a hunter for many years since I was 16 or 17 when I started work in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[682,5159,12897,57643,12896,16959,7815,13489,19339,424,111,43,139,69,16121,53545,2687,153609,31421,61],"class_list":["post-563579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-being","tag-brian","tag-church","tag-dependent","tag-destiny","tag-firearms","tag-guns","tag-leader","tag-licence","tag-life","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-responds","tag-revoked","tag-saying","tag-shrugging","tag-tamaki","tag-to"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}