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Come And Take Them: New Zealanders Stand Up To Extreme Gun Confiscation Laws

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As it turns out, freedom may run more deeply in the veins of New Zealanders than their namby-pamby government imagined.

After the tragic shooting in Christchurch earlier this year, the New Zealand government decided to enact more restrictive gun regulations.

Because nothing deters violent, would-be murderers more than taking guns away from innocent people.

Unless… violent, would-be murderers also are inclined to obey the spirit and letter of the law every moment of every day until Jesus comes back.

No? Well then, like I said, New Zealand‘s government is full of complete milksops.

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Because only weak leadership responds to a crisis with authoritarian, culture crushing, knee-jerk restrictions.

As J.D. Tuccille writes for Reason, the weakling government “is running into stiff resistance to new gun rules from firearms owners who are slow to surrender now-prohibited weapons.”

This circumstance should not be a surprise.

Do you think attempts at gun control could ever work in America?

Local New Zealand publication Stuff observed back in May that “police are anticipating a number of people with banned firearms in their possession won’t surrender them.”

And the police are correct…if by “a number” they meant 99.96 percent. Only 700 guns have been turned in out of the estimated 1.5 million in the country.

As Tuccille points out, New Zealand has traditionally relaxed gun laws and has previously had no registration requirement for firearms. So the exact number of guns that must be turned in is unknown.

“These weapons are unlikely to be confiscated by police because they don’t know of their existence,” Philippa Yasbek of Gun Control NZ told Mercury News. “These will become black-market weapons if their owners choose not to comply with the law and become criminals instead.”

Oh right, you communist wimp. You should definitely pass laws to transform innocent people who choose to bear arms into criminals.

“If New Zealand’s political class had looked to the history of gun control efforts they would have seen that they were walking a well-trodden path that leads to a dead end,” Tuccile writes. “But then again, if they had enough foresight to know that ill-considered restrictions on personal liberty are usually counterproductive and often breed rebellion, they probably wouldn’t have gone into government.”

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It is weaklings in leadership, not heroes, that reflexively respond to crises.

A steady approach, informed by the lessons of freedom throughout history, will always better serve a government’s people.

So here’s the moral of my story: Don’t be a pantywaist.

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G.S. Hair is the former executive editor of The Western Journal.
G.S. Hair is the former executive editor of The Western Journal and vice president of digital content of Liftable Media.

After graduating law school from the Cecil C. Humphries School of Law, Mr. Hair spent a decade as an attorney practicing at the trial and appellate level in Arkansas and Tennessee. He represented clients in civil litigation, contractual disputes, criminal defense and domestic matters. He spent a significant amount of time representing indigent clients who could not afford private counsel in civil or criminal matters. A desire for justice and fairness was a driving force in Mr. Hair's philosophy of representation. Inspired by Christ’s role as an advocate on our behalf before God, he often represented clients who had no one else to fight on their behalf.

Mr. Hair has been a consultant for Republican political candidates and has crafted grassroots campaign strategies to help mobilize voters in staunchly Democrat regions of the Eastern United States.

In early 2015, he began writing for Conservative Tribune. After the site was acquired by Liftable Media, he shut down his law practice, moved to Arizona and transitioned into the position of site director. He then transitioned to vice president of content. In 2018, after Liftable Media folded all its brands into The Western Journal, he was named executive editor. His mission is to advance conservative principles and be a positive and truthful voice in the media.

He is married and has four children. He resides in Phoenix, Arizona.
Birthplace
South Carolina
Education
Homeschooled (and proud of it); B.A. Mississippi College; J.D. University Of Memphis
Location
Phoenix, Arizona
Languages Spoken
English
Topics of Expertise
Culture, Faith, Politics




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