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For­mer Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Gary Grif­fith has crit­i­cised the cur­rent ap­proach to grant­i­ng Firearm User Li­cences, say­ing it con­flicts with Gov­ern­ment’s po­si­tion on cit­i­zens de­fend­ing them­selves.

In a me­dia re­lease, Grif­fith ar­gued that the ex­ist­ing pol­i­cy of deny­ing firearms to most ap­pli­cants runs counter to the na­tion­al stance en­cour­ag­ing in­di­vid­u­als to stand their ground. He ex­pressed hope that his com­ments would be tak­en as con­struc­tive crit­i­cism.

Grif­fith said suc­ces­sive Po­lice Com­mis­sion­ers have op­er­at­ed un­der what he de­scribed as an out­dat­ed mind­set, lim­it­ing firearm ac­cess pri­mar­i­ly to law en­force­ment and in­di­vid­u­als deemed to be un­der di­rect threat. He ar­gued that this ap­proach has led to wide­spread de­nial or de­lays for or­di­nary cit­i­zens, in­clud­ing busi­ness­peo­ple, farm­ers and house­hold­ers seek­ing le­gal pro­tec­tion.