Firearms handed in at an event in Canterbury this year. Until now gun owners haven't had to register each individual firearm, but the Council of Licenced Firearms Owners said there was a shortfall of about 70 percent. The council's national secretary Nicole McKee said the process had been very rushed and believed there could still be at least 170,000 prohibited firearms in circulation. The police and the government "have left it really late to define a lot of those rules. "Regardless of whether firearms owners agree with the law or not - it is the law."

Source: Otago Daily Times December 16, 2019 01:52 UTC