Kiwis Rush to NZ Gun Shops in Anticipation of New Gun Laws

Opinion

While some New Zealanders are turning in guns to police, others are rushing to gun shops to buy semi-auto rifles in anticipation of new gun control laws. (Dave Workman)

USA – -(AmmoLand.com)- Instead of rushing to turn in their guns in the aftermath of the double mosque attacks in Christchurch, reports from New Zealand indicate that many of the island nation’s citizens are actually rushing to gun stores in the anticipation of a ban that might be coming from Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, according to Stuff, a New Zealand news organ.

While some Kiwi gun owners have, indeed, surrendered firearms to the authorities as reported previously by AmmoLand News, others appear to have a far different attitude. According to the Stuff report, Blenheim gun shop owner Peter Watson said hunters and sport shooters are “already considering purchases” and were “keen to buy” guns after Ardern announced the nation’s gun laws would change.

Does that make reports from CNN and The Daily Mail about the turn-ins “fake news?” Not necessarily, but it does show that not all New Zealanders are jumping on the disarmament bandwagon.

According to CNN, quoting Prof. Philip Alpers—founder of “GunPolicy.org”—the nation’s firearms laws have “remained substantially unaltered since 1992.” Calls for registration and other restrictions have essentially gone unanswered.

Alpers reportedly complained to CNN that, “Not one of these measures has been addressed by legislation. Government has since considered a range of similar recommendations, but special interest groups prevent meaningful change.”

He also lamented that New Zealand, like the United States and Canada, have decided not to require registration of civilian firearms. That contrasts with the overwhelming majority of countries surveyed by the United Nations, CNN reported.

Alan Gottlieb, Second Amendment Foundation

But UN efforts at global gun control have hit a wall in the United States, where Second Amendment activists have been on the forefront of the resistance. Indeed, one of the nation’s leading gun rights advocates, Alan Gottlieb, has been a leader in the formation and expansion of the International Association for the Preservation of Civilian Arms Rights (IAPCAR). Gottlieb is founder and executive vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation and also chairs the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

In an Op-Ed he bylined for USA Today Wednesday, Gottlieb noted that;

“Gun control proponents argue that America could ‘learn something’ from the horrendous attack on two New Zealand mosques. They are hoping that our citizens, gripped by emotion, will overlook the obvious and agree that law-abiding gun owners should face additional restrictions on their rights.”

“The real lesson to be learned from the Christchurch massacre,” Gottlieb’s piece observes, “is that madmen aren’t deterred by gun control laws, or laws against murder. Morality doesn’t enter into their thinking, so honest people must be prepared for the unthinkable and be able to respond.”

Gottlieb’s position was, at this writing, garnering about 75 percent support from USA Today readers, while the newspaper’s editorial calling for more gun restrictions was supported by less than half the readers while slightly more than 51 percent of the respondents opposed the newspaper’s position.

Watson, the Blenheim gun dealer, told Stuff that he does not support a “blanket ban” on semiautomatic firearms. He pointed to the use of semi-auto shotguns for waterfowl hunting, and for bird predation management by the operators of vineyards. He criticized the government’s “knee jerk reaction” to the mosque attacks, which involved a single gunman who left a lengthy “manifesto” in which he claimed to have acted

The government is expected to announce new gun control measures by next Monday.

Meanwhile, writing at The Daily Caller, Erich Pratt with Gun Owners of America noted that New Zealand already has stricter gun laws than the United States, and that the suspect “broke off the attack only after being confronted with a weapon.”

One of the intended victims at the second mosque picked up an empty shotgun and reportedly threw it at the suspect, smashing the window of his getaway car. Earlier reports suggested that the worshipper had actually fired at the suspect, but as is often the case with reporting such events, the first reports were wrong.

RELATED: Suddenly New Zealand Becomes Nation Of ‘Sheeple’


About Dave WorkmanDave Workman

Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.

 

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Bob

Why would you take firearms away from your citizens? CONTROL, why else. The sad thing is that the shooter wasn’t even a citizen. Instead, why not make it illegal for a non-citizen to purchase or posses a firearm? No, we must control the people, remember “One man with a gun can control 100 without one”. Vladimir Lenin
When the government has the guns and you don’t, one thing is certain, you are no longer a freeman.

Александр

Hello, I would like to add that Lenin did not say this quote. It was made up by an anti communist to make people think communists are anti gun. Sorry if English is not good.

John

ALL together now, Communist News Network!

Александр

Hello, CNN is most 100% capitalist as they denounce socialists, Obama, Bernie, AOC can call themselves whatever they want, they are social democrats. They will never amount to anything like Lenin.

Jim Macklin

It is probably too late to buy a gun in NZ! You can’t get a handgun for self-defense and you can’t carry. All semi-autos are being banned and licenses will not be available to get one. Expect Ruger Mini 14 and 30 to be banned. AR and AR look-alikes such as a Ruger bolt action .22 Precision rifle looks dangerous. The 10/22 and the Marlin 60 are semi-auto. The Marlin Model 60 even looks like an M1 Carbine.if you don’t look too closely. NZ does not have a Bill of Rights that protects the right of the people to keep… Read more »

Scotty Gunn

They are all sheep there, so no civil war. They are used to taking it in the keister for decades and actually not only got used to it, but now it seems normal to them.

Mark R

Christchurch is a false flag event meant to disarm Kiwis and use it against our country. There will continue to be more of these false flag events until
1) the communists totally disarm our population and usher in communism
2) enough of the population rise up in armed defense and rid our country of these parasites known as democrats. We also have to get rid of the GOP members who are traitors – a lot more than just RINOS.

Evidence it was a false flag event is here:
https://mailchi.mp/da5018c71b2c/the-scandal-of-our-generation-63479?e=f76860762b

J

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyEPejcVPEA The Christchurch Massacre – An Independent Analysis The Democratic Party and the Republican Party are basically heads and tails of the same quarter. The quarter is rolling down the slope going where it is directed to go. Along the way down the slope, the quarter veers to the left for a little bit, then veers to the right for a little bit, but nonetheless still rolling where it is going. We just fight among ourselves pulling and pushing the quarter to the left and to the right, never look up once to see that the quarter is going to… Read more »

Александр

Communists have no power in New Zealand, the powers that be are neo liberal capitalists using a terrible event to disarm workers.

R jackson

I think the buy back scheme for mssa weapons is a joke!!! If they wanna buy these weapons back off law abiding licenced firearm holders, u want it u pay for it! They gunna offer a price based on age? Condition, blah blah blah, a new ruger 5. 56ar style costs around 2000 what if its your pride an joy? Or is that not considered at all. Bloody disgusting if u ask me

Will Flatt

To answer the question in the article, YES, CNN IS ALWAYS FAKE NEWS. They’re so pathological they are SIMPLY INCAPABLE OF TELLING THE WHOLE TRUTH!

Gene Ralno

The Christchurch incident contradicts the claimed failure of gun control. It worked precisely as planned. Government intimidation of good people hoping to protect themselves has prevented most from owning, let alone carrying firearms. And yet, the government’s reaction is GRAB THE GUNS, GRAB THE GUNS!! I’d ask, WHAT GUNS?!! Nobody in that mosque had any. I’d also ask just whom they hope to disarm. These victims already were rendered defenseless by their own misanthropic government. Seems nations like New Zealand always lean toward tougher restraints of peaceable, lawful citizens. Citizen reaction to this incident was no different than dozens of… Read more »

james

PAY ATTENTION! New Zealand is a constitutional socialist country–they have laid down the law. They know where the guns are and you can bet they will get them! This is the future of our country unless somehow some of these real high Democrat Party folks are not voted out of office. I think it is pretty much over for us regardless.

Александр

Hello, New Zealand is a social democracy that loves neo liberalism. Their workers do not own the means of production nor is their government in favor of it. This is another capitalist attempt to disarm the workers.

Roy D.

I wonder what sort of deal they are going to give to the people who make their living off of the sales of firearms and related items?

m.

why trust a gun-confiscation d-sucker?

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