Three days is all it took for politicians in New Zealand to ban so-called “military style” rifles in the wake of horrific attacks on mosques that left 50 kiwis dead.
The laws haven’t been formally approved by the country’s parliament, but Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced the ban on “all military style semi-automatic weapons” takes effect immediately, regardless.
“Today I am announcing that New Zealand will ban all military-style semi-automatic weapons. We will also ban all assault rifles. We will also ban all high capacity magazines,” Ardern said, according to ABC News. “We will ban all parts with the ability to convert semi-automatic or any other type of firearm into a military style semi-automatic weapon.”
It’s the kind of overnight gun control Democrat presidential candidate Bernie Sanders can get behind.
The socialist senator from Vermont praised the government’s move to limit gun rights in a post to Twitter late Wednesday.
This is what real action to stop gun violence looks like. We must follow New Zealand’s lead, take on the NRA and ban the sale and distribution of assault weapons in the United States. https://t.co/lSAisDG9Ur
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) March 21, 2019
“This is what real action to stop gun violence looks like,” Sanders posted, along with a link to The Washington Post’s coverage of the gun grab.
He ignored the fact that the right to bear arms is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.
“We must follow New Zealand’s lead, take on the NRA and ban the sale and distribution of assault weapons in the United States,” Sanders wrote.
Ardern said she expects New Zealand lawmakers to approve the new restrictions by the end of a two week session that concludes on April 11, and she called on retailers to halt the sales of the banned weapons and return unsold supplies.
The prime minister announced the gun ban is only the first step, with further restrictions on licensing, registration and storage still to come, according to ABC News.
The New Zealand government in unsure of the number of “assault” or “military-style” guns currently owned by citizens, but plans to hold a buy-back costing between $100 million and $200 million to convince them to turn them over, Ardern said.
She described the cost as “a price that we must pay for the safety of our community.”
Ironically, a man who helped to stop the horrific shooting at two New Zealand mosques last week used a semi-automatic handgun to chase the perpetrator away.
Under the new gun ban, that gun would now be illegal, according to Townhall.
The criteria for the new ban on “Military-Style Semi-Automatics” defines the term as any “semi-automatic firearm capable of being used with a detachable magazine which holds more than five cartridges” or “a semi-automatic shotgun capable of being used with a detachable magazine which holds more than five cartridges,” the news site reports.
“Based on the specific criteria outlined in the New Zealand ban, Sanders is calling for a ban on essentially every firearm in the United States,” Townhall reports. “The functional definition of ‘assault rifle’ in this case includes nearly all firearms in regular, legal and proper use by millions of Americans.”
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