New Zealanders are refusing to turn over guns under new law

[Dr. Keith]

Then the government won't get their guns. But their guns won't likely see the light of day ever again either, for fear of prosecution.

Seems the government wins either way, doesn't it.

I like this attitude. The American Gun Enthusiast like to paint a picture of NZ gun owners oiling their gardens, as if that is a loss for Big Gun Control.

Hell, I'd love it if American Gun Enthusiast had to keep their guns in such a safe storage situation.

 

[smartcooky]

Meanwhile, here in the real world, those "New Zealanders refusing to turn over guns under the new law" have been turning them over...

"A steady stream of gun owners arrived at the Riccarton Racecourse in Christchurch on Saturday, the first of 258 buy-back events to be held around the country.

Canterbury's acting district commander Mike Johnson said gun owners had come out in force for what had been a "positive experience for them and our staff".

"We've had 169 people come through today, we've been handed over 224 firearms, 217 parts and $433,000 has been paid out."​

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/114215888/governments-first-gun-buyback-event-under-way

That brings the total firearms returned and seized to 2364, with another 257 buyback events to go.

 

[Tolls]

Just to have some gauge on this, what numbers are they expecting to get handed over?

 

[arthwollipot]

Just to have some gauge on this, what numbers are they expecting to get handed over?

From the article:

Colfo estimated 250,000 to 300,000 banned firearms were in circulation...

 

[smartcooky]

From the article:

I think 300,000 is a gross over estimate

Only 6% of New Zealanders (about 300,000) hold a firearms licence. Of those, only 10% (about 30,000) actually own a firearm. A figure of 300,000 illegal firearms would mean that on average, those who actually own firearms would have on average 10 illegal firearm each.

 

[arthwollipot]

Well... the estimate was from the Council of Licensed Firearm Owners. I don't know whether that's a gun club or a lobby group so I don't know how much to trust their estimate. But a number was provided in the article.

 

[smartcooky]

Well... the estimate was from the Council of Licensed Firearm Owners. I don't know whether that's a gun club or a lobby group so I don't know how much to trust their estimate. But a number was provided in the article.

COLFO is a rough approximation of the NRA, except its powerless, toothless, it doesn't bribe politicians and it represents a very, very small proportion of gun owners. They claim a membership of "several thousand" but I'd be really surprised if it wasn't more like several hundred.

We do have something called the "National Rifle Association of New Zealand", but its nothing at all like the NRA in America. NRANZ is a collective of sports shooters (Fullbore, smallbore, Target, Skeet etc). NRANZ is to shooters what NZRugby is to Rugby players

 

[catsmate]

Meanwhile, here in the real world, those "New Zealanders refusing to turn over guns under the new law" have been turning them over...

"A steady stream of gun owners arrived at the Riccarton Racecourse in Christchurch on Saturday, the first of 258 buy-back events to be held around the country.

Canterbury's acting district commander Mike Johnson said gun owners had come out in force for what had been a "positive experience for them and our staff".

"We've had 169 people come through today, we've been handed over 224 firearms, 217 parts and $433,000 has been paid out."​

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/114215888/governments-first-gun-buyback-event-under-way

That brings the total firearms returned and seized to 2364, with another 257 buyback events to go.

Yeah I noticed that at the weekend. The ridiculous fantasies of the gun-fondlers don't meet reality. Again.

 

[applecorped]

224? wow, that's probably all of them, right?

 

[Sideroxylon]

224? wow, that's probably all of them, right?

 

[cullennz]

I think 300,000 is a gross over estimate

Only 6% of New Zealanders (about 300,000) hold a firearms licence. Of those, only 10% (about 30,000) actually own a firearm. A figure of 300,000 illegal firearms would mean that on average, those who actually own firearms would have on average 10 illegal firearm each.

Think it is a severe under actually

Not that it matters as 99.9999% of people would ever wilfully shoot anyone.

You will get a lot handing them in and a lot just still hunting with and hiding them.

They will die out, guns will crap out, be handed in etc

 

[The Atheist]

COLFO is a rough approximation of the NRA, except its powerless, toothless, it doesn't bribe politicians and it represents a very, very small proportion of gun owners. They claim a membership of "several thousand" but I'd be really surprised if it wasn't more like several hundred.

I'd be amazed if it were more than dozens, actually.

224? wow, that's probably all of them, right?

You may need to consult an atlas to see how big NZ actually is - it's not a small island and takes a couple of days to get from one end to the other.

I think the government thought it would be unfair to expect every gun owner to travel to one event, so they're holding a couple*, and the 224 guns was just at the first one.

* A "couple" in this instance being another 257.

 

[ponderingturtle]

I'd be amazed if it were more than dozens, actually.



You may need to consult an atlas to see how big NZ actually is - it's not a small island and takes a couple of days to get from one end to the other.

Your roads are that bad? As a state it would be the 9th largest in square miles right behind Colorado.

 

[theprestige]

Your roads are that bad? As a state it would be the 9th largest in square miles right behind Colorado.

Wiki says it's about 990 miles on its long axis. That's 16.5 hours of driving, at an average speed of 60 mph.

Definitely do-able in a single 24 hour stretch, but even with great roads (which I assume NZ has), I'd still want to take a couple days to do it.

 

[The Atheist]

Your roads are that bad? As a state it would be the 9th largest in square miles right behind Colorado.

Long & skinny, though, with a gap in the middle requiring a ferry.

But yes, lots of the roads are that bad. Nominal speed limit is 100 kmh, but there are massive stretches where 100 kmh isn't achievable in a Ferrari.

Wiki says it's about 990 miles on its long axis. That's 16.5 hours of driving, at an average speed of 60 mph.

Definitely do-able in a single 24 hour stretch, but even with great roads (which I assume NZ has), I'd still want to take a couple days to do it.

Given 60 mph/100 kmh being the speed limit, averaging 60 isn't an option. Even ignoring the speed limit, it's almost impossible to average 100 kmh because the country is only flat in a couple of places, so straight roads are very rare and lots of the corners are sharp.

Don't be fooled thinking we have great roads, though. This is an example of a 100 kmh road in NZ:



Not all of them are that bad, and there are only a couple of bits of the main highway that are, but it's definitely representative of country roads. Short cuts aren't an option.

 

[smartcooky]

Wiki says it's about 990 miles on its long axis. That's 16.5 hours of driving, at an average speed of 60 mph.

Definitely do-able in a single 24 hour stretch, but even with great roads (which I assume NZ has), I'd still want to take a couple days to do it.

And why would you want to drive for from, say, Auckland to Christchurch, a 16H trip including a 3 hour, $250 (each way, so $500 total) trip on the inter-island ferry just to hand in a weapon, when there are some 50+ scheduled hand in events over the next 12 month in your area, some perhaps within walking distance?

As usual, our meditative testudinal diapsid posts bollocks through doing no thinking or research before posting.

 

[theprestige]

And why would you want to drive for from, say, Auckland to Christchurch, a 16H trip including a 3 hour, $250 (each way, so $500 total) trip on the inter-island ferry just to hand in a weapon, when there are some 50+ scheduled hand in events over the next 12 month in your area, some perhaps within walking distance?

As usual, our meditative testudinal diapsid posts bollocks through doing no thinking or research before posting.

What are you talking about?

Ponderingturtle was simply making a crack about NZ's size and road quality. He didn't say anything about turning in weapons.

---

ETA: I'm also really disappointed by the way your post turned out. I got as far as

And why would you want to drive for from, say, Auckland to Christchurch, a 16H trip including a 3 hour, $250 (each way, so $500 total) trip on the inter-island ferry

And was all set to reply, "because road trips are awesome, and road trips with ferry rides doubly so!" But then your post went all shenanigans on me, and I feel cheated.

 

[The Atheist]

As usual, our meditative testudinal diapsid posts bollocks through doing no thinking or research before posting.

Clear swing and miss there - you need to re-read those few posts in order.

 

[smartcooky]

Think it is a severe under actually

Not that it matters as 99.9999% of people would ever wilfully shoot anyone.

You will get a lot handing them in and a lot just still hunting with and hiding them.

They will die out, guns will crap out, be handed in etc

Rubbish!

There are only about 1.5 million firearms TOTAL in NZ. 300,000 is one in five being illegal. In my quite large circle of friends and acquaintances, there are several who, like me, are firearms license holders,; some of us have more than one firearm (I have three). None of those people have firearms that meet the banned criteria. And I have asked them about it. Only one of them knows anyone who has, his brother-in-law has an ex NZ military FN-FAL 7.62mm, and he's already handed it in.

IMO, where the 300,000 figure is coming from is that the most common semi-automatic firearm in NZ is the Ruger 10/22; there are about 250,000 of those throughout the whole country used mostly by DOC staff and farmers for small pest control. They are what American's call "Varmint Rifles".

Initially, it was thought that these might be banned, but all that has happened is they will have restricted magazine capacities.

FYI: Here is a list of the firearms banned and being bought back

https://www.dropbox.com/s/f06llxb72xinwax/prohibited-firearms-and-parts-buy-back-price-list.pdf?dl=1

You will see that there are several Rugers on the list, all of them are Handguns or MSSA rifles....

Handguns
40S&W
44MAG

MSSA Rifles
PC 9mm
Mini - 14/ Stainless
AR556
SR556
SR762

...and none are the Ruger 10/22.

 

[Samson]

https://reason.com/2019/07/08/noncompliance-kneecaps-new-zealands-gun-control-scheme/








Noncompliance Kneecaps New Zealand's Gun Control Scheme
As of last week, only around 700 weapons had been turned over.



Once again, responding to a horrendous crime by inflicting knee-jerk, authoritarian restrictions on innocent people proves to be an ineffective means of convincing people to obey. Specifically, New Zealand's government—which also stepped up censorship and domestic surveillance after bloody attacks on two Christchurch mosques earlier this year—is running into stiff resistance to new gun rules from firearms owners who are slow to surrender now-prohibited weapons and will probably never turn them in.

Essentially it takes a mass shooting to allow common sense to prevail. Prior to this one the only mass shooting in modern times that was not family matters driven was Aramoana, here 13 were killed, 3 injured, plus the gunman killed.

Port Arthur in Tasmania, 35 dead, allowed Australia to act quickly. It is deemed virtually impossible that this mosque massacre could have happened in Australia, so New Zealand had an off the shelf template that became politically doable only because there were enough deaths.