Chester Borrows. Pic: NZPA

Wellington, May 10 - There are more than a million guns in New Zealand and it is too late to try to find all the unregistered weapons, an MP said today.

Chester Borrows, MP for Wanganui and a former police officer, said that for many years shotguns did not have to be registered.

"You can do an operation in a small town and locate several sawn off shotguns or firearms in the period of a week or two, and find that none of them are registered," he said on TV One's Q&A programme.

Asked whether he was talking about a million guns, Mr Borrows replied "easily".

And asked whether there was any way to find unregistered guns through the introduction of tighter laws, he said "no, the horse has bolted".

Mr Borrows and Wanganui Mayor Michael Laws were taking part in a discussion about weapons following the Napier siege and the new law that gives Mr Laws' council the power to ban gang patches.

Mr Laws said he was certain the gang patch ban law would be taken up nationwide.

He also said he would like to see the police armed.

"Every time you see an incident like this (the Napier siege) and you see armed police, people actually feel safer," Mr Laws said.

"I think we've got to a stage in New Zealand where there are so many bad people out there and the public requires reassurance.

"In a place like South Auckland on a Saturday night it seems senseless that you wouldn't simply automatically, routinely, arm your cops."

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