New Zealand gun owners return over 50,000 weapons as part of buy-back program
New Zealand gun owners have handed in tens of thousands of firearms as part of an ambitious six-month weapons buy-back program following a ban on certain semi-automatic rifles.
On March 15, a lone gunman killed 51 people at two Christchurch mosques. Less than a month after the attack, the New Zealand government rushed through new laws banning military-style semi-automatic weapons in a move that was closely followed around the world.
As of midnight local time on Friday, 56,250 firearms and 194,245 parts had been handed in at more than 685 collection events held around the country, New Zealand Police Deputy Commissioner Mike Clement said.
More than 2,710 firearms had also been modified to make them lawful, Clement told CBC News in a statement.
Police said a surge of people participated in the last few days of the buy-back, with more than 4,100 firearms turned in over the last week.
The gun buy-back was «unprecedented» and has been a huge logistical exercise for police, who had three months to get the firearms buy-back process in place and start communicating this to firearm owners, the deputy commissioner said.
«Right from the beginning we have said that the prohibition of semi-automatics was not blaming law-abiding people with legitimate uses for their gun,» Clement said.
