Noncompliance Kneecaps New Zealands Gun Control Scheme

(Reason) J.D. Tuccille 7.8.2019 12:48 PM 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 Zealands governmentwhich also stepped up censorship and domestic surveillance after bloody attacks on two Christchurch mosques earlier this yearis 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. Officials should have seen it coming. Police are anticipating a number of people with banned firearms in their possession wont surrender them Stuff reported at the end of May based on internal government documents. As of last week only around 700 weapons had been turned over. There are an estimated 1.5 million gunswith an unknown number subject to the new prohibition on semiautomatic firearmsin the country overall. Traditionally relaxed in its approach to firearms regulation and enjoying a low crime rate New Zealand has no firearms registration rule. That means authorities have no easy way of knowing what guns are in circulation or who owns them. These weapons are unlikely to be confiscated by police because they dont know of their existence Philippa Yasbek of Gun Control NZ admitted. These will become black-market weapons if their owners choose not to comply with the law and become criminals instead.