New Zealand: Government Files Bill Requiring National Gun Registry, Harsher Penalties For Gun Law Violations

New Zealand — In a no-longer shocking move, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced on Friday that legislation will go before Parliament that would require all guns and gun owners in the country be registered in a national database.

She also said the bill would have more and harsher penalties for not complying with the new gun laws, for modifying guns, and more.

This comes after a shooting in April at Christchurch where a left-wing eco-terrorist killed 51 people.

After the shooting, New Zealand rammed through an assault weapon ban as well as several other new gun laws in less than two weeks.

Their legislators were convinced–or bullied–by their anti-gun leaders that this would cut crime.

But six months later, that wasn’t enough.

We’ve written before about the laughably small number of guns turned in by gun owners to their national buy-back program.

Apparently, gun owners in New Zealand think their Prime Minister is wrong about how to solve the problem of gun crime.

Unlike in America, Ardern doesn’t need to pretend that gun ownership is a right.

In fact, she said explicitly on Friday, “Gun ownership is a privilege, not a right.”

Ardern then pointed out that most gun crimes are committed by criminals who are using guns they either stole or obtained illegally.

Adding another layer of laws to break before committing a crime will surely stop them!

As for making stiffer penalties, Ardern said, “For example, every person who is currently found guilty of selling or supplying a firearm to an unlicensed person is liable for a term of imprisonment not exceeding 3 months or a fine of $1,000. This Bill will increase those penalties to 2 years and $20,000 respectively.”

If you sell a shotgun to your best friend without the proper paperwork and the government finds out, you’re going to jail for up to 2 years and paying up to $20,000!

The New Bill:

Some of the bill’s provisions include:

  • The creation of a firearms registry to enable the monitoring and tracking of every firearm legally held in New Zealand.
  • Changing the length of the time of issue for a firearms license from 10 years to five years.
  • The creation of a licensing regime for shooting clubs and ranges.
  • A requirement to be a license holder in order to purchase and hold firearm parts, magazines, and ammunition.
  • Strengthening and tightening the rules in the licensing regimes for individuals and dealers.
  • Conditions on firearms licenses and changes to endorsements.
  • Updated and new offenses and penalties.
  • Provisions to enable health practitioners to notify Police if they have concerns about a licensed firearms owner’s health or well-being.  (AKA Red Flag laws)
  • New Mechanisms and options for dealing with firearm license holders who breach conditions of the Act or Regulations.
  • Strengthening regulatory oversight on importation and sales.
  • Changes to the cost recovery regime that will enable fees to be set out in regulations for a range of regulatory services.

Simply put, the citizens of New Zealand may undergo such a radical change to their gun laws as to make tens of thousands of citizens criminals overnight.

New Class of Criminal:

Notice how a ‘gun crime’ is now defined as any non-compliance with the radical new gun law?  It doesn’t mean “used a gun to hurt or threaten somebody unlawfully” anymore.

What do you suppose is going to happen to the number of ‘gun crimes’ with that new definition?  Headlines will scream:  “Gun Crime Soars!  We have to do more to stop it!”

You can imagine the media hysteria, and how non-gun owners will be whipped into a frenzy by fake news media coverage.

They won’t mention that most of those “gun crimes” will be things like a grandfather forgetting he owns his Dad’s WWI pistol and not getting a license to own it, etc.

This sort of anti-gun legislation spreads like wildfire and that’s why gun owners in America can’t let it get even a foothold in our great country.

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