The Police have now released their Buy-Back Price List. Many of you will have already seen this – but I am also away that I have a large enough reader base that even more of you will have not.
I would expect that the majority of firearms are going to be deemed ‘used’. So that is the price line I would be looking at.
If you have a firearm on there that isn’t listed, you need to get in touch with the police.
If you have an AR made out of multiple brands (like many are) – you will need to get in touch with the police.
If you feel the valuing is unfair, you will need to get in touch with the police.
There are already really more questions than answers, as was always expected.
However. Right now. Like previous advice, I would suggest you hold tight, follow the law, but just keep the firearms locked up safe and do nothing.
I would expect there will be legal challenges to this pricing and process, and I would imagine that the people quick to react will likely get a little mixed up in the wash.
A good example would be people who have been quick to have their firearms modified to be kept legal (pinning/blocking/permanently modifying lever action 22s or tube feed shotguns for example) – the police have indicated that there could be compensation for people having their firearms modified to comply – but I am not sure how this is going to work out for people who have already had the work done.
As always, you need to follow the law. But I would suggest the laws/figures/process are still being solidified and many potentially change a bit in the next few months.
Handing In Community Events
This part does genuinely make me nervous. A whole bunch of people, in a large public space, there to hand in firearms that they potentially do not want to be handing in, not sure if they need to be handing in, wanting to discuss, potentially argue… it doesn’t sound like a good recipe for a smooth operation.
I would expect there will be protests – from both sides of the situation, long delays and waits, all kind of helping fuel what will already be a tense and terse situation.
By the sounds of it, there will also be the option to discreetly hand the confiscated firearms in at dealers stores and locations – and I would pick this would be a much more civil and calm affair.
Our Public Face
There is already enough public conversation and option going on out in the NZ at the moment, and I am not really 100% sure what more I could contribute – I would just suggest to some though, that this shouldn’t be a political party issue. Sure. The incumbent party is the one pushing this through, but by understanding, much of the select committee, advisors and so on would have been exactly the same regardless of who was in. It really seems to have been a populist action, as much politics is today.
Through my experience dealing with people, both existing firearms owners, new shooters and right back to people applying for their licences, peoples reasons for getting into firearms and their backgrounds are as varied as people are on the whole.
This is a society issue, not a firearms one, though it has now just become political. Stay safe people, look after each other. Breathe. The sun will rise again tomorrow.