Five years after the country’s legislation banning the ownership of semi-auto rifles and spending more than a $100 million of tax-funded dollars to compensate existing owners of the rifle in what amounted to gun confiscation, New Zealand officials are looking to revisit the ban and potentially allow at least some residents to own modern sporting rifles once again for competition, hunting, etc. ...
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However, since the suspension of semi-auto gun ownership in that country as a response to those killings, the country has actually witnessed more violent crime taking place, much of it blamed on a rise in gang violence.
“Over the last five years gangs have recruited more than 3,000 members, a 51-percent increase. At the same time, we’ve seen a significant escalation in gang-related violence, public intimidation and shootings, with violent crime up 33 percent,” Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith said in a press release last week.
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