New Zealand on the Slippery Slope

Sebastian points out that New Zealand has embraced the "assault weapons" nonsense and intends to make it harder to obtain semi-automatic firearms with pistol grips. Sebastian rightly notes that this is the wrong feature to focus on - perhaps a selector switch that allows fully automatic fire makes more sense.

Never mind all that - this is textbook gun control at work. Go check out the Violence Policy Center's website. The conclusion to their study on "assault weapons" says it in black and white:

The weapons' menacing looks, coupled with the public's confusion over fully automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weapons—anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine gun—can only increase the chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons.

More "common sense" gun control at work. Expect some Mexico nonsense to make this issue come back on the home front.