Per NZHS forum members, New Zealand police are jumping the gun.

Caution: I have found no news reports confirming this, but the claims strike me as credible.

It is important to note that, as best I can tell, at this time, the only “ban” is on sales. Possession is not yet banned, although it is planned.

Got suggested I pop this up but whilst at work this morning, I hear a voice ask for me by name. I turn around and there’s 2 police officers.

Needless to say workmates were shocked too see me taken into a room for a chat and these guys were quite nice about it but wanted to know what my partner and I have.

Was polite and freely told them plus we were waiting on further buyback details and advice at this time. Also let them know due to having been days away from both of us submitting our E cat application our E cat safe is installed and floor plated as per the reccommendatons. (So stored legally in an odd stroke of luck)

It seems to depend on the officers, but they are reportedly not stopping with gathering data.

A Mate of mine had the cops turn up at his house on sat after an image a friend of his had posted on Instagram holding his a cat ar15 got reported. They asked to see his safe and he complied. They confiscated his ar15 as well as his semi 22 although they Admitted they werent sure if that would be effected under the new law and suggested he may get it back. They gave him a police property form with all details of what they were holding and took the guns with them

And if they can’t reach owners, they attempt to get other people to rat them out.

This is second hand from someone who attended their 2 day shoot over the weekend. Wairarapa gun club had a talk on the weekend about firearm security whilst on club grounds. Locked vehicle etc. It was also mentioned that there evidently have been instances of police turning up at clubs wishing to inspect firearms and licences. NZCTA evidntly recommend politely refusing as under current legislation without a warrent this is illegal. Questions have also evidently been asked “do you know what guns other members have” it was pointed out that it is liiegal at present to divulge what firearms another person holds.

The fact that the police are attempting to discover what people have is interesting.Depending on the news report, the coming ban is anything from “military-style semi-automatics” (an NZ legal term roughly equating to a California “assault weapon”) to all semi-automatic firearms.

MSSA’s must be licensed and registered (roughly equivalent to the American NFA). But the police don’t seem to know who has them. It sounds like their registration system is working about as well as California’s.

Unofficial reports have it that NZ is running short of PVC pipe. And gun stores are running out of A Cat semi-autos. The police are going to need metal detectors and ground penetrating radar to document those.

Sadly, this hasn’t stopped with unlawful searches and seizures. There are news reports of a fatality. The police say it was suicide. But they also say:

“Members of the public who heard what they thought were explosions were hearing police deploying gas at the scene.

What brought this on? The official version is that the man’s son posted a years-old picture of an Airsoft gun on social media. That necessitated a raid on his home.

After a stand-off with the man in his truck, he was found dead of a stab wound or wounds.

So far, NZ gun owners say they intend to be polite when dealing with police. But the sense I get is that may change with more unlawful seizures, or another convenient suicide.

(Hat tip to The Truth About Guns)

[Permission to republish this article is granted so long as it is not edited and the author and The Zelman Partisans are credited.]

 

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