I almost expect to be underwhelmed when other countries address gun laws. Most of them are downright hostile toward the idea of gun ownership by regular folks, and they’re not interested in changing that. It takes a significant move forward to get me excited, such as Argentina lifting the ban on civilian ownership of semi-automatic firearms.
New Zealand used to be kind of decent on guns, though. Up until the Christchurch massacre, there were more hurdles to clear than you’d find in the United States if you wanted to own something like an AR-15, but it was doable.
Now, it’s really not for most people, though there was an effort from the government there to perhaps change that.
In fact, it was clear there were going to be new gun laws in the country, but talk about being underwhelmed.
Cabinet has signed off on an overhaul of the country’s gun laws that shifts the responsibility of the firearms regulator from the Police Minister to the Firearms Minister.
National and ACT agreed to rewrite the Arms Act – in place since the early 1980s – as part of its coalition arrangement.
The legislation has had many iterations, more recently a ban on semi-automatics and a new firearms regulator, introduced after the March 15 terror attacks.
Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee has been working on rewriting the act to “improve public safety” and make it easier for licensed firearm owners (LFOs) to comply with the law.
One of the tweaks many hoped for was that the ban on those semi-automatic firearms would be lifted.
That didn’t happen. Instead, the period of time a license for such a gun–a license restricted to particular individuals filling particular roles–was doubled, but with a re-evaluation point in the middle to see if the individual’s “circumstances” had changed.
They did decide to allow standard capacity magazines for those with pistol permits, which I guess is good news, but for the most part, there’s not much good for gun rights here.
And yeah, there’s a bit of bad as well.
Other parts of the reforms include automatically disqualifying identified gang members (those on the National Gang List) from holding a firearms licence, preventing them from gaining legal access to guns.
The reforms will also introduce a statutory ‘red flag’ system so police and other agencies can signal to the firearms regulator when they have relevant intel that might trigger a review of whether a LFO remains a fit and proper person.
Penalties for more than 60 Arms Act offences will be increased and eight new offences created, including one that makes it illegal to own a firearm without a serial number.
The new act is also supposed to plug gaps in the law to address new and emerging technologies such as the illegal manufacture of 3D printed firearms and parts, and possession of digital files without a licence.
Now, I’m not entirely sure how New Zealand defines “identified gang members” for their list, but if it’s anything like our domestic gang databases, this is an issue because there’s no due process involved. This basically makes it so that not only is gun ownership treated as a privilege rather than a right, but one that can be denied simply because someone in a position of authority believes you’re in a gang, even if you’re not.
Red flag laws are terrible, trying to crack down on privately made firearms is terrible, and increased penalties don’t really do much of anything good with regard to addressing so-called gun crime beyond punishing people for longer. It’s not a deterrent at all.
McKee wanted to lift the restrictions on so-called assault weapons, particularly for competition shooters. She’s apparently a competitive shooter, too, so I respect that. However, she also said it wasn’t an issue she was willing to “die in a ditch” over, so this was the best anyone could get.
Which isn’t much at all.
I’m sorry, New Zealanders, but this is what you get when you can’t elect people who view the right to keep and bear arms as a right. Until that changes, this is the kind of “wins” you can expect to get.
And it’s why I’m so glad we have the Second Amendment.
Editor’s Note: After more than 40 days of screwing Americans, a few Dems have finally caved. The Schumer Shutdown was never about principle—just inflicting pain for political points.
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