Fresh off another round of vacuous virtue signalling and claiming that New Zealand’s criminals are somehow Australia’s responsibility, Jacinda Ardern has announced another round of equally dumb gun laws:
“Firearm owners will have to register their guns amid the largest changes to gun laws in decades.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced details of the firearm law overhaul on Monday, saying it would come with a message ingrained in law: firearm ownership is a privilege and not a right.
Ardern said New Zealand had reached a “new normal around firearms” after the March 15 terror attack.
The Government is seeking cross-party support the latest reform effort, but already resistance to a firearm register – a contentious measure linking gun serial numbers to licence holders – is fomenting.
National police spokesman Brett Hudson signalled the party would take issue, saying announced reforms would impose more regulation and cost on New Zealanders, instead of focusing on those breaking the law.
ACT MP David Seymour joined members of the firearms community in pointing to similar measures overseas, saying registers had been costly and yielded little tangible benefit.
The new bill was yet to be drafted and the full cost of the reform remained uncertain. Broad estimates indicated the total reform package may cost between $42 million and $53m over the course of a decade.
Other reforms announced on Monday include: halving the 10-year licence expiry to five years; barring visitors to New Zealand from purchasing firearms; more powers for police to take guns; requiring a firearm licence for ammunition and parts purchases, and registering the country’s estimated 260-gun clubs.
The ability for firearms owners to privately buy and sell guns will remain, and new rules around advertising firearms will be put in place. Social media will be among the sources of information that police can inspect for flags that someone should not have a licence firearms licence.
“If someone is very openly espousing violent views, talking about for instance wanting to kill others, I think rightly, New Zealanders would say that’s ground to say that’s ground to say they’re not a fit and proper person,” Ardern said.”
Firstly, those quoted figures, much like those pulled out of the arses of KPMG executives in 5 hours to guess the cost of the confiscation, are complete garbage.
NZ has already been down this road. Firearm registration for most categories was ditched in the 80’s, when it was realised it was a complete waste of time and money for no proven benefit. Canada also did this in 2012 with its long arm registry and the sky has not fallen in.
Australia’s registries have been a disaster and you need look no further than the recent scathing audits of both NSWFAR and WA Firearms Licencing to see why.
NZ’s gun laws do not need to change at all. It had some of the fairest and most balanced laws there are and a statistical anomaly in 30 years is no reason to base any kind of reactionary legislation off of. How can you expect NZ Police, which didn’t do their due diligence on Brenton Tarrant, who also handed out licences to 639 foreign criminals and scores of local ones, to now effectively preside over even more inane bureaucracy, while hardened criminals have overtly stated they will not turn their illegal firearms in?
Firearm registration is nothing more than a costly exercise in authoritarianism. It’s patently ridiculous of NZ Police to complain about the current cost of administering the Arms Act and then think the best solution to that, is to add even more cost and liability on top. Even more insane is the proposal to halve licencing periods – aside from being a blatant cash grab, what do you also think this will do to the administrative burden that NZ Police are already complaining about?
But you only have to look at the current Police Minister Stuart Nash to understand how that has happened:
Great work by David Seymour, the lone dissenting voice in NZ Parliament after the sell-out of both National and NZ First on this issue.
There are an over 1.5 million firearms in NZ and most are not, and will not ever be, registered. All that is going to happen is a huge black market will form and non-compliance to the confiscation will be the norm.
And it won’t prevent or solve any crime, because it historically never has. It’s the next stage of incremental civilian disarmament and nothing more.
Give them nothing.
“How can you expect NZ Police, which didn’t do their due diligence on Brenton Tarrant, who also handed out licences to 639 foreign criminals and scores of local ones, to now effectively preside over even more inane bureaucracy, while hardened criminals have overtly stated they will not turn their illegal firearms in?”
Almost exactly the same thing was the case with Port Arthur. Martin Bryant (who admittedly was unlicensed) should not have been allowed to possess a firearm of any sort. A tragedy happened because of a lack of due diligence and proper enforcement of existing laws on the part of the Tasmanian Police.