New Zealand buys back 10,000 ‘banned’ guns first month

This is what a knee-jerk reaction will get you to a shooting. A similar effort is working our way. You know the drill. You will read and hear “Assault Rifles” but that is the classic fake news. It is most semi-automatics.

Following attacks on two Christchurch mosques, New Zealand’s parliament voted overwhelmingly to ban most semi-automatic weapons along with certain kinds of ammunition and large-capacity magazines.

Yes the dreaded semi-automatic. Ask any of our Presidential candidates the same question now, and I would guess few could answer what a semi is.

In simplest terms, “semi-automatic” refers to any firearm designed to fire one bullet with one trigger squeeze, then automatically reload the chamber with a cartridge from a magazine and be ready to fire again.

The term applies to a whole range of modern firearms, from hunting and target rifles all the way up to so-called black rifles that look like what a soldier would carry. Gun control arguments often focus on the black rifles, but the differences between those and any other semi-automatic rifle often are only cosmetic. Semi-automatic guns all largely operate the same way. These guns are commonly owned and include hunting rifles. Many handguns are similar.

More than 10,000 firearms were purchased by the New Zealand government in the first month of a “no questions asked” plan to buy back newly banned weapons, TheGuardian reports. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern pushed through legislation that banned military and semi-automatic weapons after an Australian white supremacist killed 51 people in Christchurch mosques earlier this year.

Snip…

There are between 1.2 and 1.5 million now-prohibited weapons in New Zealand, according to some estimates. Gun owners have until Dec. 20 to sell back or hand in their weapons or face jail sentences of between two to five years.

Considering the current population of New Zealand is about 4,791,634 last I checked, I would say New Zealand is quickly joining it’s neighbor Australia which has banned most guns.

Australia rolled out the National Firearms Agreement, which banned the possession of automatic and semiautomatic firearms in all but “exceptional circumstances.” About 640,000 guns were surrendered through a gun buyback program and another 60,000 were turned in to authorities for free in 1996 and 1997.

Sources:Daily Beast and NPR

They might have considered what happened in Venezuela in 2012.

Venezuela bans private gun ownership – BBC News

Other than that, all is well in the swamp.

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