NZ joint the list of countries that have experienced religious based terrorism

[VS 5.0]

**** it, our concert has been cancelled as have most large public events this weekend due to safety concerns.

And that is where terrorism wins.

 

[Immortality]

Exactly, I was rather hoping they wouldn't.

 

[VS 5.0]

Yes, standing in defiance > cowering in fear.

Or, as Peter garrett once sang.....it's better to die on your feet than live on your knees.

 

[keith reed]

For those ignoramuses like myself having a read of the New Zealand Herald will help understand how easy it is to get a gun licence in New Zealand.
It would not have been to hard for any terrorist group enter the country and create havoc.
There is talk of banning semi automatic weapons as has been done in Australia. This has been tried before and failed due to the weakness of the previous government.
Not a great fan of John Howard but have to hand it to him on his banning of semi automatic weapons in Australia. I could not imagine that there would
be much opposition due to the mass murder that has just occurred. This won't resolve the problem as there are many legal and illegal weapons in the
system but at least it's a start.

 

[Immortality]

For those ignoramuses like myself having a read of the New Zealand Herald will help understand how easy it is to get a gun licence in New Zealand.
It would not have been to hard for any terrorist group enter the country and create havoc.
There is talk of banning semi automatic weapons as has been done in Australia. This has been tried before and failed due to the weakness of the previous government.
Not a great fan of John Howard but have to hand it to him on his banning of semi automatic weapons in Australia. I could not imagine that there would
be much opposition due to the mass murder that has just occurred. This won't resolve the problem as there are many legal and illegal weapons in the
system but at least it's a start.

Yes and no, getting a gun license for someone from overseas who has an existing license is easy as simply showing your license and then getting a 12 month NZ license. This as I understand it is for those who come hear to hunt as tourists etc. For a NZ resident to get a license is a little more difficult and involves sitting a test and character checks. Even then that only gets you a A cat license with which you can get semi-automatic type weapon but only with a maximum of 7 shot mag and other various restrictions. The mags the shooter used you need to get a E cat license(extremely difficult). I don't think the drum style magazine he had is legal here period so I'd suggest those were obtained illegally through some other means. Importing items like that without the proper license is also illegal.

 

[JRNZER]

I never knew ar15 guns and other semi automatics guns were available in NZ.
Left there 9 years ago after living there for 31 years and never noticed any gun shops in my time there. Things must have changed a lot in the last several years as they showed a few gun shops in NZ on the news and they had loads of them in there

 

[keith reed]

I left 18 years ago and likewise was surprised to see that there were gun shops.
Very disappointed to see people line up to buy semiautomatic weapons before
a proposed ban might take place.

 

[Immortality]

They have been around for decades but I guess before the age of the internet only those who were interested in the shooting would have known where to look. They have always been around and I guess these days they advertise more in the mainstream rather than only the dedicated magazines like Hunting & Fishing etc.

The sale of the so call A cat AR type weapons has only really become mainstream in the last few years as different suppliers started making em to suit our A cat firearms rules.

The AR type platform does make a decent bush gun (so to speak) because if it's relatively short barrel which makes it easier to carry in dense bush than your more traditional rifle and seeing as you're most likely to be shooting pigs and goats at short range a long barrel rifle just isn't required. It's not something I do, I'm more into target shooting or the odd skeet shooting session with the shotgun but I do know people who hunt and prefer the AR for that.