New Zealand's new gun legislation is set to be law next week, with the Government outlining phase one of the county’s firearm changes following the Christchurch terrorist attack, where 50 people were killed at two mosques.
When asked by media today for a response to gang members who did not plan to hand over their weapons, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters said, "we don’t plan to fail on this".
"Yes, you will be handing them back. It's not a matter of cooperation, it's a matter of being obliged to conform with the law of this country, or to be operating illegally.
Mongrel Mob Waikato branch president Sonny Fatu told NZ Herald they would not be handing their weapons in as they could not "guarantee their own safety".
Stuart Nash outlined the range of gun law changes set to come into effect next week.
Police Minister Stuart Nash said he found it "abhorrent that you could have gang members in the media publicly saying they were going to break the law".
"We take that very, very seriously."
When asked about gun-owner concerns that the Government were moving too fast, Mr Nash said he did not "buy that, whatsoever".
He said every gun owner he had talked to said the types of guns that were being banned were not needed for activities such as hunting.
"These are guns designed to kill people," Mr Nash said.
Mr Nash was asked about any regrets surrounding lack of action on changing gun laws. The Police Minister spoke about the swiftness of the current law changes after the terrorist attack, but Mr Peters touched back on the original question stating: "You cannot be a serious New Zealander without [having a] shared regret that we had not moved in prior times much faster on these issues."
The first phase of changes are to be set out as:
- Ban semi-automatics weapons and military style semi-automatics.
- Ban parts, magazine and ammunition used to assemble prohibited firearm or convert a lower powered firearm to semi automatic.
- Ban pump actions shotguns with more than a five shot capacity.
- Ban semi-automatic shotguns with capacity for detachable magazine.
- Create penalties and introduce new offences.
- Create new definitions of prohibited firearms, magazines.
- Establish an amnesty for firearm owners to take steps to hand over unlawful weapons, parts, magazines and ammunition by September 30.
Mr Peters said he intended it to be reported back to Parliament on April 8, and for it to be law next week on April 12.
Mr Nash said 211 guns had so far been handed in since March 15, with more than 1400 calls to the police line regarding firearms changes, and 900 webforms had been filled out.
SHARE ME