Auckland, NZ — Police Commissioner Mike Bush was upfront with Parliament on Wednesday when updating them on the status of the gun buyback.
There are only six weeks left in the buyback program, with more than 80% of the banned guns still not turned in.
While international media—especially in the United States—have crowed over the new laws, the compliance rate is still an embarrassment.
Trying to boost their numbers, New Zealand police have contacted 115 “prominent” gang members and even met with more than 50 of them.
The topic of discussion: handing over their illegal guns.
Shockingly, the gagn members were reportelly “reluctant” to hand over their guns.
So let’s look at this. We know that the people who commit the most crime are criminals.
Presumably these gang members have committed other crimes, if being a member of certain violent gangs isn’t already outlawed, itself.
The government KNOWS which criminals have the guns.
They have their addresses to contact them and set up meetings.
But instead of just arresting and prosecuting violent gang members for their crimes, they’re going to confiscate the guns the gang members use from totally law-abiding farmers and shop keepers.
If the gang members don’t hustle into the buyback programs, they’ll get a friendly letter reminding them that their guns are due to be turned in.
This is totally nuts.
Where Do You Go From “Total Failure?”
Police have until December 20th to gather the last 80% of the prohibited firearms.
There have already been 350 collection events held all over the country.
Police Minister Stuart Nash told reporters on October 31st that the country has already spent more than $62 million dollars in payments to gun owners.
And yet we now know that that hasn’t included the 115 top gang members in the country!
They’ve successfully disarmed the law-abiding folks, of course! It’s those pesky criminals who aren’t turning their guns in!
Of course, Nash doesn’t see it that way.
He crows that they’ve collected tens of thousands of guns, ostensibly from ‘off the streets.’ “More than 32,000 prohibited weapons have been removed from circulation. More than 120,000 prohibited parts such as high-capacity magazines have been handed in.”
But we know now that they weren’t the guns on the streets.
No, these were the guns sitting in a locked gun cabinet in some farmer’s bedroom closet.
Guns pulled out to shoot varmints or for home defense.
Not the guns used in the statistical majority of violent crime in New Zealand.
Wake Up, You’ve Been Dreaming
Even some in the government are recognizing what’s happening: they’re disarming harmless people and leaving guns in the hands of violent gang members.
National’s police spokesperson Brett Hudson said the buyback could be a failure:
“If it doesn’t take swift action to engage with responsible firearms owners and the firearms community. Gangs are not complying and we’re seeing no action from the Government tackle illegal firearm use,” he said. The focus has always been on the law-abiding firearms community.”
And that tells you everything you need to know! Gun confiscations are never about safety or lowering crime.
They’re about power, control, and giving politicians easy access to control of the citizenry and their money.