WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — On a visit to New Zealand, FBI Director Kash Patel gave the country’s police and spy bosses gifts of inoperable pistols that were illegal to possess under local gun laws and had to be destroyed, New Zealand law enforcement agencies told The Associated Press.
The plastic 3D-printed replica pistols formed part of display stands Patel presented to at least four senior New Zealand security officials in July. Patel, the most senior Trump administration official to visit the country so far, was in Wellington to open the FBI’s first standalone office in New Zealand.
Pistols are tightly restricted weapons under New Zealand law and possessing one requires an additional permit beyond a regular gun license. Law enforcement agencies didn’t specify whether the officials who met with Patel held such permits, but they couldn’t have legally kept the gifts if they didn’t.
It wasn’t clear what permissions Patel had sought to bring the weapons into the country. A spokesperson for Patel told the AP Tuesday that the FBI would not comment.
US FBI Director Kash Patel visits New Zealand, immediately provides local officials with 3d printed, potentially operable firearms…
… which is a crime, that could carry up to a 3 year prison/jail sentence in NZ…
… and would also potentially be somewhere between a misdemeanor and a felony depending on where you are in the US, as 3d printed firearms are generally without serial numbers and are thus ‘ghost guns’, which are often illegal if unregistered, if not outright banned, though this differs from state to state and city to city.
(Oh also, I guess he is so concerned about properly investigating the death of Charlie Kirk that he is uh, personally looking for leads in New Zealand, or something.)
This is not correct. Under federal law, building them for yourself is legal. However, selling them without a serial number is illegal. Manufacturing them without having a license is even more illegal.
The law in the various states may be more restrictive.
That’s not correct either . Federally it is legal to sell a self built firearm with no serial number as long as you did not originally build it with the intention of selling.
So if I make 100 of them and then lick each one of them, and then decide they don’t taste good… Selling them is OK right?
They’re gonna pull our licker license
As stupid as that sounds, something a little less stupid may, may hold up as a defense in court, depending on where you are, and if you have a couple million dollars to blow on legal fees and/or can get some kind of gun rights advocacy oriented legal firm type thing to work for you.
So, giving them away is cool then right?
I have to say it though; there are many easier ways of making money.
Yeah, just 3d print ATM skimmers!
for legal reasons this a joke
I’m in the clear because at no point in time did I intend to illegally make money with whatever it is you’re talking about
I would ask your lawyer before investing in the infrastructure.
Many of the US’ gun laws come down to “intent”. Almost like they were written from the start to be selectively enforced.
Kiwi law or us law?
What’s the difference between “building” and “manufacturing?”
Intent to sell
I am also unlearned in these ways. I wonder if the difference is the scale of the operation as far as the law is concerned?
From the country that brought you ‘dumb and dumber’, what did we expect.
US gun laws are incredible. Short Barreled Rifles are illegal. So they just make them with “pistol braces” instead, and sell them as “pistols.” AR-15 with a 10.5" barrel? Pistol.
They only write rules designed to be sidestepped eh
Huh, so the federal courts finally ruled against the pistol brace ban. I hadn’t been following that.
Yep, and then if you put a ‘not a pistol brace but an actual buttstock’ on one of those things without registering it as an SBR… probably you are now a felon, maybe?
???
What is it for a rifle, 16 inch min barrel, 26 inch from toe to tip min length?
You would think this would spur bullpup adoption / creation around those exact specs… and I guess the PSA Wolverine, Kel Tech RDB and Springfield Hellion are that, though … the general gun community seems quite hesitant toward and skeptical of anything that doesn’t match their already learned standard AR 15 muscle memory.
Also that. Put a rifle stock on that gun for an instant felony.
Sorry I edited more into my comment as you made yours, but yeah, US gun law is uh… something.
Don’t bullpups have softer recoil?
That… depends.
Generally, puppies have less recoil simply as function of being a bit heavier, literally having more mass, but this can vary a lot depending on what you are comparing to, and the exact bullpup’s internal mechanics.
This is assuming we are comparing a bullpuppy and standard layout weapon shooting the same caliber, of course, from similar barrel lengths.
However, another large factor maybe isn’t quite recoil per se, but the overall balance point, center of mass of the weapon.
A lot of guntubers I have seen give bullpups a decent chance say that they are so well balanced, that you can reasonably accurately operate them single handedly, which is fairly important in a combat scenario where maybe you get shot in an arm or shoulder.
They also say that it is easier to get the weapon aimed at a target, and that follow up shots are also easier to aim precisely and get off more rapidly, because of the balance of the weapon, and that it is less fatiguing to hold a bullpuppy in a shouldered, ready to aim and fire position, and you can do this longer without your arms tiring.
As a video game modifier and fps enjoyer, I find it funny that that last part is almost never modelled or simulated by games. Sure, sniper oriented games will have a hold breath mechanic, but almost no games simulate that… just holding a weapon upright, shouldered, sighted in… this is tiring.
Like, grab a 7 pound semi gun shaped object and hold it as if you are just ‘iron sighted in’, in a game… I’ll bet your arms start getting weak and wobbly in a number of minutes, now try that with double or triple the weight to approimate an older /heavier rifle or MG of some kind, and you’ll see how silly the notion of just running around with like an M60, and using it as an assault rifle is, unless you are a fucking beefcake.
There are also studies that show that is is significantly easier to train an untrained shooter to be a decently accurate marksman with a bullpup than it is to do the same with a standard layout weapon.
But flip side of that are things like uh, field repairs can be more difficult and time consuming to repair, and widely reported heavier and/or chunkier, less smooth trigger pulls.
==For the record, I’ve shot a number of different weapons and calibers irl, but never an actual bullpup, so my ‘bullpup knowledge’ is second hand or theoretical==
Personally I’ve only handled a bullpup. It was created as a replacement for the old M16 the army used to use. Didn’t have much training with it, after a session of virtual training, we were sent to the live firing range to shoot. Managed to get a couple of shots under marksmen. As a video game enjoyer getting to shoot, and throwing live nades, was probably the only fun part about basic training.
So yes I think it’s a pretty good weapon for even novices to shoot accurately. Idk about fatigue tho since we were made to carry that thing around all the time and just got used to the weight as my own.
I’ve definitely played games where using your sights gets wobbly after a few seconds.
What’s the difference between building and manufacturing?
Scale.
Short version:
Ok, the actual legal status of this is quite complicated, I will ammend that section with more qualifiers.
Long version:
I’ll give you that at the Federal area, right now, this is not illegal, to make and possess your own unregistered, unserialized firearm… but if you go by the proportion of people that live in states or cities that have just outright made possession of a ghost gun a crime in and of itself…
https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/ghost-gun-legality-by-state
Yeah thats uh… at least ~126 million US residents where unregistered ghost guns are specifically some kind of illegal at the State level, and thats likely an undercount given that there are likely a lot of larger cities / counties that have their own restrictions, but are within States that don’t have them at that level…
So yeah, it is probably explicitly illegal by local/state law for about half the US by population to self mfg and/or possess a 3d printed gun with no serials / registration
Yeah, I live in one of those states. But even here, it’s legal to make with no serial number, you just have to register the creation.
Or at least that’s what the law was. I know it changed a few years ago, I haven’t bothered keeping up since it doesn’t affect me.
Genuinely didn’t know New Zealand is a federal system.
I think they are responding to the OP’s comment:
Which has nothing to do with NZ.Edit: that last bit sounded catty; not my intention.
It’s not, they just don’t realise not everywhere is the US.
NZ doesn’t have states.