NZ starts guns buy-back plan
Tens of thousands of firearms expected to be surrendered
WELLINGTON: New Zealand police expect tens of thousands of firearms to be surrendered in a guns buy-back scheme after parliament passed tough new firearm laws in the wake of the country’s worst peacetime mass shooting.
Lawmakers in New Zealand voted almost unanimously on Wednesday to change gun laws, less than a month after a lone gunman killed 50 people in attacks on two mosques in Christchurch.
The new legislation bars the circulation and use of most semi-automatic firearms, parts that convert firearms into semi-automatic firearms, magazines over a certain capacity and some shotguns.
This includes the gun used by the suspect in the Christchurch shooting.
It granted an amnesty until Sept 30 for people to surrender prohibited items.
More than 300 weapons had already been handed in, police minister Stuart Nash told parliament. Police Deputy Police Commissioner Michael Clement told a news conference yesterday that they were not sure how many guns they would receive as New Zealand does not have laws requiring people to register firearms.
“Its a great unknown question ... everybody appreciates that there is no register of firearms with regards to the type of firearms we are talking about.
“So it could be in the tens of thousands, it could be more,” Clement said.
There are about 1.2-1.5 million firearms in New Zealand, according to gunpolicy.org.
Of these, the government has said a record of licences show that 13,500 firearms are military style semi-automatics. But the number could be higher.
Clement said details were being worked out of the gun buy-back scheme and he urged gun owners in possession of the prohibited firearms to register online.