No right to bear arms in NZ
The Herald reports:
A legal challenge by firearms owners to the Government’s military-style semi-automatic weapons ban claiming New Zealanders have the right to bear arms under the Treaty of Waitangi was “doomed to fail”, the Court of Appeal has ruled.
Unless guns are a taonga, no surprise!
The so-called constitutional right to bear arms, the Kiwi Party argued, had derived from ancient custom, which evolved into a common law right and was affirmed by the Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights 1688 and the Treaty of Waitangi.
The Magna Carta deals with the following:
- Freedom for the English Church
- Heirs should inherit land
- Widows don’t have to marry
- Money lent from Jews doesn’t need to be repaid by heirs
- London shall be free
- Lawsuits to be heard in a fixed place
- Royal family to stop stealing wood
And a bit more like that, but nothing about guns.
He said New Zealanders need to be able to exercise their “constitutional right” to access semi-automatic weapons and large capacity magazines to be able to effectively defend themselves against any unlawful use of arms by agents of the Crown or Executive.
In particular, he argued New Zealanders need access to semi-automatic weapons in order to match police fire power should the cops resort to unlawful use of firearms against New Zealand citizens.
Not surprised that argument didn’t fly.