Are you saying Kiwi gun control laws are stricter than America's, or Canada's? Here in Canada there are two basic classes of firearms a citizen can acquire: restricted and non-restricted. Non-restricted guns include shotguns, bolt-action rifles, center-fire rifles, and most semi-automatic rifles. This requires a safety test and license to acquire. Restricted firearms include handguns and some semi-automatic rifles such as the AR platform. This requires just a further test and different license.
The reason I ask is that some states, namely California, Mass., and the like have far greater restrictions than Canada, yet gun crime is generally not an issue here. Hell, in Switzerland, every male does mandatory military service and is given a fully-automatic assault rifle to keep at home upon completion, and they have a very low rate of gun crime.
>some types of guns are for one reason, and one reason only.
Not necessarily. The vast majority of what most people call assault rifles (which aren't; assault rifles are by definition select-fire) are used for sporting purposes only. The fact that they could be used were there ever to be a fecal-fan collision doesn't detract from the fact that almost all owners use them for hobby shooting.
The reason I ask is that some states, namely California, Mass., and the like have far greater restrictions than Canada, yet gun crime is generally not an issue here. Hell, in Switzerland, every male does mandatory military service and is given a fully-automatic assault rifle to keep at home upon completion, and they have a very low rate of gun crime.
>some types of guns are for one reason, and one reason only.
Not necessarily. The vast majority of what most people call assault rifles (which aren't; assault rifles are by definition select-fire) are used for sporting purposes only. The fact that they could be used were there ever to be a fecal-fan collision doesn't detract from the fact that almost all owners use them for hobby shooting.