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The results from the government’s disastrous gun law changes are in.
NEW ZEALAND- Gun-grabbing, anti-Second Amendment activists have tried to hold up a gun confiscation scheme in New Zealand as a model for the United States to follow, claiming that the government ban in that country resulted in a decrease in gun crime. They may want to rethink that narrative.
According to a new report released by Radio New Zealand (RNZ), it found that the ban had no…zero…nada…impact on gun crime and violence in the South Pacific island nation.
March 15 was the second anniversary of the Christchurch terrorist attack, in which semi-automatic weapons, which were purchased legally were used to kill 51 innocent church worshippers. That assault resulted in the gun confiscation scheme, as well as a firearms buy-back.
That led to a significant decrease in crime, right? Not so much. In fact last year in New Zealand, gun crime hit a new high.
Allow that to sink in. Not only have the gun law changes been ineffective, there has been an increase in gun crime.
RNZ found that in 2020, 2399 people were charged with 4542 firearms-related offenses, which was double the number of 10 years ago.
In addition, 1862 firearms were seized under two sections of the country’s Search and Surveillance act, which was double the number of 860 seized 10 years ago.
The report continued:
“ACT MP Nicole McKee said the government had made the wrong moves when it came to firearms reform since the 15 March attack.
“’What we’re looking at is a piece of rushed legislation, or two pieces of rushed legislation, that went though so fast that the unintended consequences of doing that are starting to be realized, and of course the effects that we’re seeing are a less safer community.’”
[…]The president of the Sporting Shooters Association, Neville Dodd said there wasn’t a simple solution to the rise in firearms crime, particularly that involving gangs.
However Dodd noted that police had sacrificed a tremendous amount of trust from owners of firearms over the past two years.
That’s what happens when you turn responsible users into criminals.
He noted that police never acknowledged their error in giving the Christchurch terrorist a firearms license in the first place, which the Royal Commission suggested may have prevented the attack from occurring in the first place.
[…]The apparent lack of success has not dampened the enthusiasm of New Zealand’s ruling class to continue the scheme, rather it has increased the resolve of anti-gun zealots.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said, “We do have an increasing issue with gun use, particularly amongst our organized criminals so for me that is more rational for the kinds of legislation we already put in place.”
Translation: The reason the new gun laws aren’t working is because we don’t have enough of them and/or we aren’t enforcing them enough; i.e. we need more of the same even though what we’ve got isn’t working!
Seriously?
What the new gun laws have done is create a level playing field between responsible gun owners and those who use them to commit crime.
But there’s even more going on here as I’ll explain.
When the government starts getting ban happy, it’s usually for one of two reasons.
The first reason is as a panicked and reactionary response to something such as a mass shooting or a media-created panic. That’s pretty obvious and we see it all the time such as with the Christchurch massacre and “Legal Highs”.
The second reason is more subtle and far more insidious. The second reason the government will ban something is to use it as a weapon against those it regards as enemies of the state. Thus in the US, laws against cannabis and LSD were used against those opposed to the Vietnam war. Similarly over here, instead of being used against obvious subjects such as gangs, our newly minted gun-laws were used against conservatives whom the government and media saw as “White Supremacists”.
But regardless of the reason, the result is always the same: an illicit market, run and controlled by criminals, and untold more harm.
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