Gun Licensing Keeps Criminals From Getting Guns? Not In NZ

By Tom Knighton

AP Photo/Elaine Thompson

Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) has been pushing a gun licensing scheme as part of his presidential campaign. He claims it’s necessary because bad people get guns, but if they’re licensed…I guess the black market disappears or something? I don’t know. Old Spartacus isn’t making a whole lot of sense on the issue.

However, part of the defense I’ve seen for his proposal is that every other Western nation requires licensing for guns. I’m not sure if Booker has offered this defense, but some of his supporters have.

It’s true that most of the nations we’re culturally similar to have gun licensing. That doesn’t mean it necessarily works, though. For example, New Zealand is currently upset that they issued licenses to people with criminal records.

Hundreds of gun licences were granted in New Zealand over the last decade despite those people having criminal convictions in Australia, a report says.

More than 600 people with criminal convictions in Australia were granted gun licences in New Zealand, of which 37 went on to commit gun crimes, including two homicides, RNZ reports.

Those convictions would have been considered in the vetting process, but they were often minor “and/or may have happened some years …Read the Rest

Source:: Bearing Arms