Basically the law and regulations around this is flawed - as we know it's not the firearm that does the damage it's the idiot that decides to use it in breach of the laws. Attempting to control what is out there through legal sources does nothing to stop criminals being criminals, and when you have a massive pool of items already out in the wild who knows how long it will take to reel a sufficient number back in to make a serious dent in the crime stats.
Anything can be made to look menacing, I recall someone waving a kids BB gun pistol around a while back that still had the orange/red tip on it. I'm really unsure why NZ went down this track, as if you have a criminal bent and are doing crime one more line on your sheet is unlikely to make you think again regarding firearms - and if you are suddenly not fit and proper and consorting with the criminal element despite the firearms licensing checks again it's likely years down track before you are picked up with firearms offences unless you come up on notice for some other reason (assuming why you come up isn't because of something registered to you that still has the ID on it - be mint if it does but in my view unlikely). It's a bloody expensive convoluted and inefficient way of just trying to make firearms owners care more for their expensive toys - I would have thought it would have been more effective making all transfers go on paper and signed off by the local AO...
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