Gun Registry Lessons From New Zealand By Mark Chesnut

A recent spate of gun confiscation in New Zealand shows just how dangerous a gun registry can be when combined with some gun owners opposing the views of those in charge of the government. And with constant attempts to create a registry in the United States, it highlights a danger Americans should understand.

According to a report at waikatotimes.co.nz, 62 firearms license holders recently had their licenses revoked, forcing them to surrender their guns to the government or another firearms license holder. The individuals were all members of the group Sovereign Citizens, or SovCits, who hold that the federal government there is illegitimate.

New Zealand authorities conducted Operation Belfast in 2022 in an attempt to identify safety risks for law enforcements. The focus was SovCits, and authorities identified some 1,400 people they believed subscribed to the group’s ideology. Of that group, 58 were firearms license holders.

One of the conditions of retaining a firearm license in New Zealand, under the country’s Arms Act, is that license holders meet the obligation of being a “fit and proper person” to hold a license. Having an undefinable condition like that within the country’s gun laws gives the government overwhelming power to deem anyone they choose to not be “fit and proper” and make them relinquish their guns.

According to the report, an intelligent report from 2021 “found that there was a ‘realistic possibility’ that a violent extremist or group of violent extremists, motivated by SovCit beliefs, would commit a spontaneous act of violence in response to a perceived assault by government agencies during a routine act of legal or regulatory enforcement.’” However, to date the perceived “threat” hasn’t resulted in any violence with firearms.

Over the years, the New Zealand government has repeatedly tightened its gun laws, most recently in 2020 with firearms registry that required license holders to update as they buy or sell guns.

“The new law is designed to stop firearms falling into the wrong hands,” Minister of Police Stuart Nash said at the time. “It spells out for the first time that owning a firearm is a privilege, limited to responsible licensed owners.”

The move prompted the International Bar Association to tout the country as a model for what American politicians should do to address criminal violence.

“The Pacific nation has introduced swift and sweeping reforms of gun laws following the mass shooting in Christchurch in March—a move that highlights the continuing lack of action to tackle gun violence in the United States,” the IBA stated in a news item following the passage for further restrictions.

Interestingly, the Sovereign Citizens movement is alive and well in the United States. In a nutshell, adherents believe the government is the illegitimate product of a conspiracy that subverted the original, lawful government. And they believe people can take steps to divorce themselves from the illegitimate government, after which it has no authority or jurisdiction over them.

If, in fact, we had a national gun registry or national firearms licensing in the U.S., it’s not a large step to think that the Biden-Harris administration or future administrations might go after their firearms by deeming them a threat to law enforcement or simply because their ideology wasn’t in line with the people in power.