"Make Feel Good" Ignominy

50,000 Legal Firearms Confiscated in New Zealand ‘Buyback’

Breitbart London

[The following piece gives us insight on how other countries view the "Great Buyback".   We confidently predict that it will have zero impact upon violent crime in New Zealand.  We expect that the criminal gangs, which have grown prodigiously in significant numbers of patched members over the past two years, will continue their mayhem.  The police will not be safer; nor will the general public. Ed.]

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) – New Zealand authorities said Saturday their country will be a safer place after owners handed in more than 50,000 guns during a buyback program following a ban on assault weapons. But critics say the process was flawed and many owners have illegally stashed their firearms.

The government banned many types of semi-automatic weapons less than a month after a lone gunman in March killed 51 worshippers at two Christchurch mosques. The police then launched a six-month program to buy the newly banned weapons from owners.

Virtue Signalling on a Vast Jacinda-esque Scale

A Dumb, Hasty Response


Is the Gun Buyback Worth the Money?

Not By a Long Shot

Martin van Beynen
Stuff

After the mosque shootings, I was all for stripping the country of any firearms that could result in a massacre similar to the one in Christchurch on March 15.

Any action seemed like good action. Bugger the cost.

Now I'm not so sure. Although I have no problem with tighter restrictions on semi-automatics, I have some sympathy with owners of the now-prohibited firearms. The vast majority are responsible, law-abiding citizens who contribute to society and have done nothing to warrant draconian measures designed to prevent them owning particular firearms.

They purchased their guns legally and believed the law would uphold their responsible ownership. ​After the shootings, gun enthusiasts and hobbyists were equated with redneck attitudes and nasty, racist opinions.  If you owned a semi-automatic rifle like the one used by the gunman, you were seen to be potentially or already sympathetic to his malign cause.  That feeling was unfair and unfortunate and generated an acrimony unconducive to co-operation.

Then I went to the first buyback event in the country, held at the Riccarton Racecourse in Christchurch on a perfect Saturday morning, July 13.  I saw a procession of good blokes wanting to do the right thing and obey the law.

Some, of course, just saw it as a good way to raise some cash on the firearm they hardly used but most were there because the rules were the rules.  What was also clear from that first buyback day was that Christchurch was really not much safer after it than before.

Gun Laws

A Better Bill Than The Initial Draft

Derek Cheng provides a summary of the report on changing the Firearms Act by the Parliamentary Select Committee to the House.

Select Committee Recommends Arms Amendment Bill To Pass, With Extra Exemptions

Derek Cheng
derek.cheng@nzherald.co.nz

After more than 13,000 submissions, a parliamentary select committee is supporting the Government's gun law reforms but has added some further wiggle room on who can keep semi-automatics as collectors' items or use them for pest-control on farms.

Among the finance and expenditure committee recommendations, released late this evening, are that semi-automatic firearms should be allowed for pest control on farms, but restricted to specialised businesses approved by police.

It also recommended that collectors should be allowed to keep semi-automatics, as well as those who have them as heirlooms or mementos - but only if a gun part is removed to ensure the firearm is inoperable, and that part is stored at a separate address.  But the committee has rejected pleas for further exemptions, including for shooting competitions and for semi-automatic shotguns to be allowed up to seven-round cartridges.  And it has kept the bill's clause that would allow Governments to change the definition of what should be banned without parliamentary approval.

New Heights of Virtue-Signalling

It's A Circus Merry-Go-Round

OK, it's true.  We can't help it.  Once again the office has been echoing with deep, rich belly laughter. 

We suspected that as a result of New Zealand's ban on civilian's possessing certain automatic and semi-automatic rifles some folk would engage in virtue signalling.  Within twenty-four hours up steps a prime candidate--in this case the managing director of a company offering Kiwi Saver schemes.  Here is the screed:

Sam Stubbs, managing director of Simplicity, urged other providers to get rid of all weapons investments quickly.  "The law now bans ownership of semi-automatic guns in NZ, but allows KiwiSaver managers to fund the companies that make them.

"KiwiSaver managers should get rid of their investments in weapons quickly. It's the right thing to do, and easily done."  [NZ Herald]

First up, there are a whole host of firearms which the NZ Government does not see fit to ban.  They remain firmly in the hands of many New Zealanders--and rightly so.  So, if Stubbs really wants to do the right thing--by which he means having an investment policy which is consistent with the government's new gun policy--he will ensure that Simplicity's investments include businesses which manufacture, distribute, and sell non-automatic and some semi-automatic guns.  It's a simple thing to do and easily done, non?

But Mr Stubbs has not thought too far on this issue it would seem.

A More Reasoned Perspective on US Guns

The ‘March for Our Lives’ Moral Panic

The Editors
National Review

Saturday’s “March for Our Lives” carried the acrid whiff of moral panic. That the driving force behind the display was genuine — the event was planned and led by students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who are passionate advocates of gun control — is beyond doubt. But not all that is earnest is sensible, and this was a not a sensible display. Although it was invoked incessantly, as if part of a catechism, “common sense” was notably lacking from the streets and from the stage.

It is universally acknowledged in America that the death of an innocent person is a tragedy worth our attention. Where we differ is on what can — and should — be done to prevent the next one. That there exists in this country a range of considered and heartfelt opinion as to how a free society should respond to savage mass shootings apparently hasn’t occurred to the march’s participants.

The US Gun Control Debate

Things Are Not That Simple, Nor As They Have Been Painted

The issue of guns and gun controls in the United States has been up front and centre once again.  The issue is complex and has many moving parts.  It is tiresome just to contemplate writing a reasonable analysis, together with recommendations.  But every so often someone makes the attempt. 

Kiwi-in-America writes guest posts at Kiwiblog from time to time.  He has gone to the trouble of writing a (lengthy) post on guns and gun controls in the United States.  It is very well done--and written from the background of New Zealand's experience with firearms. 

For those who want an excellent precis on the issue, we cannot recommend this post too highly.  We will copy and paste the first few paragraphs, then provide a link to the full article.  The narrative describing the background to the recent Parkland, Florida--Nicholas Cruz murders--14 February 2018, alone leaves one aghast. 

It has been some months since I have guest posted here at Kiwiblog. I have chosen to wade into one of the most contentious topics of US domestic policy, that of suitable gun laws especially as America debates appropriate responses to the latest mass shooting in Parkland, Florida.

I begin this segment with an observation as a kiwi now living in the US. It is very common for us kiwis to view much of what goes on in the US through our own cultural lens. This is particularly true of America’s gun laws and gun culture. Almost all New Zealanders of all political persuasions find America’s obsessions with guns to be at best, odd and disconcerting and at worse, pathological and dangerous. It is very easy to moralise from afar that such horrible incidents of violence are because of America’s unhealthy attachment to its 2nd Amendment right to bear arms and the seemingly pervasive influence of the National Rifle Association (NRA), the largest gun owners association in the US. Most kiwis simplistically maintain that if only America conducted itself like NZ (or other Anglophile countries where handguns are outlawed, and rifle ownership is more strictly controlled) that such mass murders wouldn’t happen, or at least not with the same frequency.

I would ask that you read this post with an open mind and with the view that NZ’s gun laws will never be enacted in the US for reasons that will become apparent and that the issue is much more complex and nuanced than the simplistic and emotion-laden slogans indulged in by any who oppose the US gun ownership model and by the mainstream media in the US who heavily support stricter gun control measures. This post attempts to pierce through the rhetoric and partisan bias and tries to propose practical solutions that stand a chance of passage into law and likely implementation by law enforcement that can and should make a difference in reducing the carnage.

STATISTICS

First off let’s examine the statistics to put mass shootings into context. Mass shootings, whilst they commandeer headlines, are actually very rare, especially when you look at the totality of gun related deaths in a country as large as the US where there are as many guns as there are people (325 million). Mass shootings in terms of numbers of victims have not been increasing in the US and indeed, the level of total gun related homicides in the US has dropped to 15,000 in 2016 (latest full year when statistics are available from the FBI) from a peak of almost 25,000 in 1991. . . .

Read the complete piece, here.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow (About Shootings)

Hollow Soul Bullets

Douglas Wilson
Blog&Mablog

The aftermath of the most recent school shooting in Florida is playing out very much like the aftermath of many of the previous school shootings. Some urge us to a period of respectful silence, saying that debating gun control issues is not fitting while the grief is still a hot ache. Others say that if we don’t debate it when the issue is staring us in the face, when will we debate it? But whether debating an issue like that in the aftermath of a tragedy is largely beside the point—because we are not really debating, unless you call yelling debating.

So my point here is not really to enter into a debate, or do any yelling myself, but rather simply to register some foundational concerns that would have to be addressed if there ever were to be a debate. I doubt that there will be, because a precondition of a true public debate (conducted with civility and respect) would be massive cultural repentance—and if we really had massive cultural repentance, it would address things like the school shootings themselves, and not just the debates over school shootings. If God restores us, He will restore the disintegrating culture—He will not give us the dubious gift of being able to debate a disintegrating culture like gentlemen.

So in preparation for that day, here would be an outline of thoughts, suggesting what I believe to be a truly biblical response.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

Shooters, the Tower of Babel, and Gun Control

Douglas Wilson
Blog&Mablog

Whenever God is formally excluded from anything, we should always suspect a power play. The “exile” of God, the “death” of God, the “silence” of God, are always seen by the unbelieving heart of man as constituting some kind of a job opening. The primal temptation was “you shall be as God” (Gen. 3:5). In that case, it was in respect of knowing good and evil, but there are other offices of Deity that unbelieving man aspires to as well. In fact, unbelieving man eventually aspires to all of them.

“The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts . . . In the secret places doth he murder the innocent” (Ps. 10:4, 8).

We sometimes think that forgetting God means that we simply forget that He is the source of all law, that we forget that He is the foundation of all that is good. Forgetting this, we then slide into sinful behavior. It is true that this is how it frequently begins, but that is not how it ends. It ends with rebellious man wanting to become the source of all law.

While we do not yet know all the specific motives that drove Stephen Paddock into his particular form of moral insanity, we know the shape the insanity took. For the ten to fifteen minutes of active shooting, Stephen Paddock was a god of wrath, visiting destruction on the people below, just as he wished. He was above, high and lifted up, and they were below, walking around down there on the ground. He was not just famous for his Warholian fifteen minutes. For those fifteen minutes, he was a jitney-jehovah, coming in a day of visitation.

His choices were to be the final determination when it came to who would live and who would die. God was not within his thoughts, and so he determined to usher in his own version of judgment day.

Some Random Observations

The Aftermath of Mass Pre-Mediated Murder

A few observations on the murder of 14 people in San Bernadino and the wounding of many more seem in order.

Firstly, it has been reported that one of those murdered was a Messianic Jew--that is, one who believes Yeshua was and is the Jewish Messiah.  In other words, he was a Christian.  This implies there were martyrs amongst the slain.

According to the pastor of one of the victims of the San Bernardino terror attack, just weeks prior to the deadly shooting, Sayed Farook told Nicholas Thalasinos—a devout Messianic Jew and fellow health inspector—“You will never see Israel.”  Pastor Bruce Dowell of the Shiloh Messianic Congregation in California told Sean Hannity on Friday’s radio show, “[Thalasino’s] wife told my wife… [Farook] said to Nick ‘you will never see Israel.’ That’s according to his wife, Jennifer and that comes straight from my wife. She was with her for the last two days.”  The pastor said Farook told that to his congregant “face-to-face” approximately two weeks before the attack.

Secondly, it is being claimed that the two murderers had no formal affiliation to any terrorist cell or group, although Malik is said to have declared her support for ISIS on Facebook at the time of the attack. Thus, they are to be compared to the Tsarnaevs of the Boston Marathon bombing infamy.

Full of Heat, Without Light

A Vain, Imaginary World

What is it with gun control zealots?  Their mindless incantations and angry expletives become more and more empty with each passing shooting.

In the recent murderous rampage by a husband and wife--apparently radical jihadis--in California, we were treated to the furious umbrage of the gun zealots.  Within an hour they were demanding that politicians should stop uttering faux religious sentiments and convert to the real religion--gun control.  If politicians got serious about gun control then overnight the scourge of guns being used to murder people would disappear.

Adjectives like "simplistic", "naive", "idiotic" to qualify the noun "zealotry" come quickly to mind.  When your case is riddled with (bullet?) holes, shout louder.  Thus raved the New York Daily News, zealot of zealots in the matter.

"As latest batch of innocent Americans are left lying in pools of blood, cowards who could truly end gun scourge continue to hide behind meaningless platitudes," the paper thundered.  Among those criticised were Republican presidential candidates, many of whom shared similar messages in the aftermath of the attack. Ben Carson wrote: "My thoughts and prayers are with the shooting victims and their families in San Bernardino."

Ooooh.  The paper "thundered", likely attempting to clothe itself in divinity, like a new deity on Mt Sinai.  How we quake in penitential fear in the face of the wrath of  their zealous god.

Gun control, bun control.  Zealots rarely let facts get in the way of a sensationalist story, propped up by faux moral outrage.