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.

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.)

  • Aatube@kbin.melroy.org
    5·
    9 hours ago

    on “inoperable”:

    Inoperable weapons are treated as though they’re operable in New Zealand if modifications could make them workable again. The pistols were judged by gun regulators to be potentially operable and were destroyed,

  • TimLovesTech@badatbeing.socialEnglish
    10·
    10 hours ago

    He brought the illegal weapons across state/country borders, isn’t that arms trafficking?

    Arms trafficking is the illegal movement, acquisition, or transfer of weapons, firearms, ammunition, or their components, often across national borders and from legal to illegal markets, without authorization.

      • BlueÆther@no.lastname.nz
        3·
        7 hours ago

        If they are deemed fire arms (and they were) then:

        • Import permits would be needed.
        • A NZ importer would be needed with all the correct licences

        I’m not sure where it stands at the moment for the secret service/FBI coming into NZ but in the past they have been forced to hand over all firearms and Protection was supplied by NZ police and Defence Force - and that was before the last round of tightening up of fire arms laws

  • Linktank@lemmy.today
    13·
    12 hours ago

    So fucking arrest his ass? Why is there a lack of enforcement based on who people are??

    Why even have laws?

    • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
      12·
      12 hours ago

      Diplomatic immunity. Lots of countries do locally illegal things in other countries, and you still want to be able to talk to them.

      • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
        10·
        12 hours ago

        Unfortunately, yes, this.

        You literally just are above the law in most scenarios if you are a formal official from another State/Country.