Deputy PM says best to ‘prepare for worst’ as MPs prepare to debate gun law changes after Christchurch shooting

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The New Zealand government’s planned buyback of semi-automatic firearms in the wake of the Christchurch shooting could cost as much as $300m (£155m), deputy prime minister Winston Peters has said.

Prime minister Jacinda Ardern previously said that the scheme would cost between $100m and $200m, but Peters told Radio NZ on Tuesday it was better to “prepare for the worst”. “It could cost – and this is an extravagant statement but it may well be true – it could cost up to $300m to set what is wrong, right,” he said.

His remarks came as the police minister Stuart Nash introduced proposed changes to parliament on Monday night which MPs will urgently debate on Tuesday. “Owning a fire arm is a privilege not a right in this country,” Nash told MPs.

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Proposed measures include a deadline of September for New Zealanders who own soon-to-be illegal firearms to hand them to police.

The government is due to introduce legislation banning most semi-automatic rifles by the end of next week, four weeks to the day since a gunman opened fire in two mosques in Christchurch, killing 50 people.

The laws include up to two years’ imprisonment for selling or possessing a prohibited part, up to five years for possessing a prohibited gun and up to seven years for pointing a prohibited gun at someone.

“The attack exposed considerable weaknesses in our laws. The firearms, magazines and parts used by the terrorist were purchased lawfully and modified into MSSAs [military-style semi-automatic weapons] due to legal loopholes,” Nash said.

He said the misuse of semi-automatic weapons “has left a nationwide legacy of harm, pain and grief”.

After Tuesday, the public will have a week to make submissions on the law before it is put in place by the end of next week.

The proposed bill will ban semi-automatic rifles and military style semi-automatics with the exception of firearms such as .22 calibre rifles and shotguns with magazines that cannot hold more than five rounds of ammunition. It will also ban parts that convert a lower-powered weapon into a higher-powered one, and create a buyback scheme.

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Nash said those who rushed to buy weapons when Ardern announced new laws were “foolish”. “If you were foolish enough to buy after the Order in Council had come into force, then you would not be compensated for it,” he said.

Gun City, the Christchurch gun shop that sold the alleged gunman four weapons, said it wanted gun owners to be treated fairly and asked those customers to sign a petition and to slow down the process.

Nash rejected suggestions the government was moving too fast, saying: “Everyone I have spoken to, be they hunters, farmers etc. has said you do not need a military-style semi-automatic or an assault weapon… These are guns that are designed to kill people.”

Peters said next steps included looking at online sales, and a register of guns, by the end of the year.

The Council of Licenced Firearms Owners has said the definitions in the new legislation would make criminals out of 250,000 New Zealanders.

Peters said this was “nonsense”, that gun laws had been “pretty lax”.



