New Zealand is struggling to enforce its new gun legislation more than three months after the massacres at Christchurch.
The country passed legislation banning nearly all forms of semi-automatic weapons and military-style weapons in the wake of the anti-Muslim attack that killed 50 people.
According to the Washington Post, opposition from pro-gun groups as well as an inability to properly track the weapons has made this law harder to enforce.
The country has no national registry, making it incredibly difficult to track which weapons need to be bought back as previous gun laws did not require AR-15s to be entered into police databases, making it almost impossible to track how many exist and how many need to be bought back. More than 1.2 million guns are estimated to be in New Zealand.
Pro-gun groups in New Zealand are also mounting opposition to the new laws. The Council of Licensed Firearm Owners said the organization had been “preparing for the inevitable backlash” after the attacks, and that the government must provide “fair compensation” if guns are bought back or taken away.
