lasttombstone
Kinder, Gentler LTS
Thousands of antique Winchesters about to be destroyed.
Following the tragic shooting event at the Christchurch mosques a few weeks ago, the New Zealand authorities have passed new legislation that will effectively see many if not all repeating rifles be destroyed.
It was first tabled that all “semi-automatic military style” rifles were to be banned from private ownership. It basically targeted the AR platform, with high capacity mags, the same that was used in the mosque shootings.
Riding on a wave of public outrage and shock over the shootings, the government decided to take as much as they could from the shooting community. They said all rifles which take magazines, suppressors, and so on. The cost to the hunting community would have been devastating, and the buy-back would have cost the taxpayer well over a billion dollars. For our small country, that amount of money is unthinkable. So, then we heard that it would just restrict magazine capacity to 5 rounds. Also, suppressors for bolt actions were still allowed.
The worst thing being, this also applies to tubular fixed magazines on full bore rifles (5 rnds), and all .22’s to a maximum capacity of 10 rounds.
So, with one foul swoop, they have placed most of our antique Winchesters, Brownings etc, into the same category as an AR-15.
The irony is, I have a .338 Lapua with a 5rnd mag, a Nightforce scope, tripod and suppressor which remains legal. However, by comparison, my benign collection of Winchester .22 “gallery” rifles, are since yesterday, banned weapons, and are destined for the crusher. I kid you not!
This was posted on another forum I frequent and thought it was worth giving everyone an opportunity to read.
"Bottom line here, I’m devastated. Truely and utterly devastated. Madness has griped our country, and our lawmakers have no compassion, no sense of reason whatsoever. The spite and venom poured out onto the shooting community has been so apparent, you could be forgiven to think that in some way, we were all responsible for the mosque massacres. You would think we all had a hand in planning them.
If this wasnt all, we have had to witness in some parts of NZ, the cancellation of Anzac day. The one day a year where the thousands of soldiers who died, are remembered for their bravery and their sacrifice. The reason? Well, because the authorities, the same authorities who are about to take and destroy our collections, couldn’t “guarantee” the safety of those of us who wanted to pay our respects. Meanwhile however, there are armed police standing outside mosques here, to protect those who want to visit or attend prayers.
Please forgive me if this sounds off topic, and it’s not my intention to turn this into either a religious rant, or indeed a political one as such. I’m just simply pouring out my feelings, and I want to share with you all the sadness I feel each day, knowing that in the next few weeks I have to make the journey to the police station to hand over my collection to be crushed.
I would hope that some of you good people reading this would forward it on, pass it around, and help highlight the true injustice and wrongness of what I, and many others like me are facing, knowing that the love, the time, the expense and sacrifices we have made over the years, in looking after historical treasures, has all been for naught.
Thank you all.
God bless."
ADMINS....... if this starts to get out of hand please move as appropriate.
Following the tragic shooting event at the Christchurch mosques a few weeks ago, the New Zealand authorities have passed new legislation that will effectively see many if not all repeating rifles be destroyed.
It was first tabled that all “semi-automatic military style” rifles were to be banned from private ownership. It basically targeted the AR platform, with high capacity mags, the same that was used in the mosque shootings.
Riding on a wave of public outrage and shock over the shootings, the government decided to take as much as they could from the shooting community. They said all rifles which take magazines, suppressors, and so on. The cost to the hunting community would have been devastating, and the buy-back would have cost the taxpayer well over a billion dollars. For our small country, that amount of money is unthinkable. So, then we heard that it would just restrict magazine capacity to 5 rounds. Also, suppressors for bolt actions were still allowed.
The worst thing being, this also applies to tubular fixed magazines on full bore rifles (5 rnds), and all .22’s to a maximum capacity of 10 rounds.
So, with one foul swoop, they have placed most of our antique Winchesters, Brownings etc, into the same category as an AR-15.
The irony is, I have a .338 Lapua with a 5rnd mag, a Nightforce scope, tripod and suppressor which remains legal. However, by comparison, my benign collection of Winchester .22 “gallery” rifles, are since yesterday, banned weapons, and are destined for the crusher. I kid you not!
This was posted on another forum I frequent and thought it was worth giving everyone an opportunity to read.
"Bottom line here, I’m devastated. Truely and utterly devastated. Madness has griped our country, and our lawmakers have no compassion, no sense of reason whatsoever. The spite and venom poured out onto the shooting community has been so apparent, you could be forgiven to think that in some way, we were all responsible for the mosque massacres. You would think we all had a hand in planning them.
If this wasnt all, we have had to witness in some parts of NZ, the cancellation of Anzac day. The one day a year where the thousands of soldiers who died, are remembered for their bravery and their sacrifice. The reason? Well, because the authorities, the same authorities who are about to take and destroy our collections, couldn’t “guarantee” the safety of those of us who wanted to pay our respects. Meanwhile however, there are armed police standing outside mosques here, to protect those who want to visit or attend prayers.
Please forgive me if this sounds off topic, and it’s not my intention to turn this into either a religious rant, or indeed a political one as such. I’m just simply pouring out my feelings, and I want to share with you all the sadness I feel each day, knowing that in the next few weeks I have to make the journey to the police station to hand over my collection to be crushed.
I would hope that some of you good people reading this would forward it on, pass it around, and help highlight the true injustice and wrongness of what I, and many others like me are facing, knowing that the love, the time, the expense and sacrifices we have made over the years, in looking after historical treasures, has all been for naught.
Thank you all.
God bless."
ADMINS....... if this starts to get out of hand please move as appropriate.