History of Gun Legislation with Josh McBride: April 4th, 2019

The New Zealand Bar Association came out supporting the semi-automatic firearm ban. Council member of the association Josh McBride says what is needed now is immediate changes to the underlying legislation to ensure that all military specification assault rifles are prohibited, irrespective of their configuration or aesthetics. Josh has prepared a discussion paper and submission to the Government on behalf of the bar association saying assault rifles have no legitimate civilian use. Josh believes they should never have been allowed in to NZ. He believes previous legislation and regulations failed to adequately restrict the importation and sale of these types of rifles and ammunition, ones which are characterised by the use of intermediate cartridges to reduce recoil and enable rapid firing. Gautami Sithambaram spoke with Josh to find out more and started by asking how these semi-automatic weapons came to be in NZ in the first place.