Numbers Prove How Horribly New Zealand’s Gun Buyback Program Turned Out

Shortly after the terrorist attack that left 51 dead in Christchurch, New Zealand earlier this year, Prime Minster Jacinda Ardern vowed to ban all semi-automatic rifles. The firearms that were used in the attack were legally obtained but illegally modified. . .

The government set aside $110 million to compensate gun owners for their firearms. In total, the government collected 47,000 firearms. An accounting firm the government hired determined that the number of banned guns is estimated between 50,000 and 170,000. The exact number, however, is unknown because the country does not have a registry for what they call “military style assault rifles.” . . .

Police in New Zealand believe that there are roughly 1.2 million legally owned firearms. But that statistic is from 2014, when the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva conducted the Small Arms Survey. For all we know, it is likely higher. Based on that number though that means there are 26 firearms for every 100 people. It really is significantly less than the United States but it is higher than Australia.

But, at last, gun control groups are already taking a victory lap. Their argument is this is only one step in a multi-pronged approach to dealing with firearms. New Zealand also plans to make licensing tougher, registration and stronger enforcement powers.

“On the one hand, taking around 50,000 of these weapons out of the community is a clearly positive step,” Gun Control NZ co-founder Nik Green said. “On the other hand, we don’t know what proportion of all prohibited firearms this represents. If we use the lower-bound estimates, it’s a pretty good result; if we use the higher ones, it’s less so.” (Read more from “Numbers Prove How Horribly New Zealand’s Gun Buyback Program Turned Out” HERE)

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