A more dangerous place

The New Conservative Party never believed that the government’s banning of military-style semi-automatic firearms was going to make New Zealand a safer place, and claims that recent events have proved its point.

“Less than three weeks into 2020, and exactly a full month after the end of the government’s amnesty for prohibited firearms, New Zealanders were seeing an escalation in illegal firearms violence, alongside the persecution of licensed owners,” firearms spokesperson Victoria O’Brien said.

Illegal firearms incidents in one week included two fatal shootings at Castlepoint, near Masterton, one in South Auckland, firing of shots at an empty car in Christchurch, firing of shots in a group altercation at Ruatoria, and two people suffering gunshot wounds in a gang fight in Hawke’s Bay.

“It is blatantly obvious that, instead of making New Zealand safer, the firearms law changes that bulldozed over the legal firearms community have made New Zealand a more dangerous place,” Ms O’Brien said. “The criminal network is now allegedly offering up to 10 times what they were previously offering for now-prohibited semiautomatic rifles, with an informant calling those items ‘massively tradeable.’ Gang members openly post photos of their illegal semi-automatic rifles on social media pages.”