Quote:
Originally Posted by 1sailor
I'm not out to knock anyone's laws but it seems strange (to me anyway) to say that your magazine cannot "look" like it holds more. Is there any reasoning behind that. The only thing I can come up with is to prevent over capacity mags that have a removable limiter to make them 10 rounds.
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Way back in 1990 (so it is claimed by more than a few "in the know") police in a small South Island town did not deal properly with complaints of anger and aggression shown by a licensed shooter with high capacity semi automatic rifles. That person went on to kill a number of civilians plus the police sergeant who failed to follow up on the complaints.
The whole incident lead to a review of what these firearms were good for in New Zealand legislation and the MSSA (Military Style Semi Automatic) firearm was designated requiring additional enquiries as to suitability to own and security.
Part of the "appeal" of these guns to "those who should not have them" was, apparently, the high magazine capacity, or the
appearance of a high mag capacity, so it was determined that 7 centerfire rounds and 15 .22 LR rounds would be the arbitrary cut off point. At least one tube magazine fed semi auto 22 held 17 rounds and got caught up in the hoopla as was a semi auto shotgun with and 8 round tube mag. And then there was discussion by collectors about the M1 rifle, (8 round clip which when loaded resulted in 7 in the "magazine" plus 1 in the chamber. Eventually it was disregarded under the new definition).
A whole lot of small town gunsmiths made money for a few years blocking the bottoms of 10 shot Chinese and Russian SKS carbines, originally with police approval. The same gunsmiths made more money a few years later when someone at Police National HQ mentioned the "appears to hold" provisions and the gunsmiths actually shortened the magazines.
Then there is the contradiction with the definition of a "free standing pistol grip stock". As you can see by the pic of my M&P 15-22 below, a simple bar from the base of the grip back to the buttstock makes it "sporting" instead of MSSA.
A whole industry has grown up in this country around AR 15's. "Sporting" rifles abound with stocks similar to my 15-22,
but no dealer can "find" a 5 round mag and no 7 rounders are made, so the definition was changed recently to say "does not hold more than 7 centerfire rounds and appears to hold no more than 10 centerfire rounds".
A few year ago an attempt was made to change the definition around "free standing" to include a narrow and non tension bearing bar like on my M&P and it ended up in court which ruled in favour of shooters. Also at a later time there was a policy that owners of MSSA's could not import parts unless they handed in for destruction the part they were replacing
without compensation. It is part of our firearms laws that compensation must be paid.
I feel the whole thing is like the California and New Jersey etc magazine limits. Either certify with additional scrutiny and security
all AR 15/AK47 alikes or ahve a whole rethink of the category of firearm.
Our criminal problem is not really with military style looking firearms. It is with cut down (often stolen) 12 gauge pump and double barrel shotguns and .22 rifles.
But try telling
that to the antis.
And another story. About the time of that early 1990 shooting, locals in a town where I moved early the following year told police about a local farmer and commercial fisherman who had and often fired a fully automatic AK47 rifle. Local cops did nothing because the person concerned was close mates to a cop and he was "a good guy who would ever use it against police".
The day after the shooting the local arms officer was going around collecting formal statements to get a search warrant ot seize the firearm. Before a warrant could be obtained his cop mate let slip what was happening and the firearm was handed in as having been "found, test fired and now surrendered".
last year I was reading in a national paper of a farmer and fisherman from the same area being sentenced to prison for importing methamphetamine. And yes, it was the same "good guy".