Hello from the States

Greetings, all.

I'm a long time shooter living in the US. I grew up in the Southern US hunting deer and turkey. I live in the NE now, in Pennsylvania, where I shoot mostly at the range, though do occasionally hunt feral hogs on southern trips.

My daughter spent time in NZ and is currently dating a young man from near Chch. I took him out to shoot some of my ARs. Nice young man. I seriously wonder if they'll marry and I'll be visiting NZ some time in the near future. I'm guessing I won't be shooting if I do... :(

I've been lurking and like your site. I'm glad to see political threads are being allowed during this dark hour, as it's important to have friends to talk things over with in the tough times.

I'm just learning a bit about the NZ way of life, so I probably won't be posting much.

Hi there,
Looks like you are from part of your country that does not like guns so much...
No one likes politics, but when it may be our only avenue to save something then we all need to get involved, no matter how much we dont want to.
Welcome to the forum!
:)

Hi. Welcome. Is your name your final rank designation when leaving the military?.

Hi @grunzter.
Thanks for the welcome.

My state of Pennsylvania (PA) is actually split on firearm ownership, but you wouldn't know it reading the US media.

As of now, we're free to own scary black rifles and use standard mags (often maligned by the press and politicians as "high capacity clips") but we can't hunt with them - bolt-only. To use an AR to hunt, I have to visit family down South. Also, hunting deer with any .22 caliber is forbidden in PA.

Also in PA, we have what gun-grabbers call the "gun show loophole" which allows a state citizen to make a private sale/purchase of a rifle or shotgun to another citizen of our state. Many such transactions take place at gun shows. It's not actually a loophole in the law, of course, it's a propaganda term that portrays that freedom as something that needs to be "fixed". My city holds huge gun shows every few months and folks from surrounding states come to drool over AR rifle/pistol parts not legal in their home states.

PA is a shall issue state for concealed carry pistol permits. The sheriff must show cause for denying one to a state citizen. This is all kind of strange as PA is an open-carry state which should mean that I could walk around with a pistol on my hip anywhere. That's not the case, though. If one does that in a populated area, someone will call in a law officer who will interview you as to why you're disturbing the peace...

Must sound like the Wild West to a kiwi, but it's our culture and not really all that crazy here. Of course, our media tells the world we gun owners are all knuckle-dragging slack-jawed yokels, but insulting us is just a ploy to move public sentiment their way.

No one likes politics except those trying to take away your freedoms, so it's important to be politically active. That's as true here where gun ownership is a Constitutional right as it is anywhere else. We have citizens and politicians running for our highest offices here who don't care that firearm ownership is a right and are looking to strip those rights regardless.

As far as your own firearm ownership fight in NZ, it seems to me you guys were bushwhacked. Get used to it. Your opponents are working in cooperation with a larger, world-wide anti-gun push. They will not listen to reason or play fair. Sounds tin-foil hatttish, I know, but it's the truth. You're now being subjected to propaganda that was honed in the UK, USA and OZ and your average Joe citizen and many a Fudd will eat it up. Fair warning.

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Originally Posted by Max Headroom

Hi. Welcome. Is your name your final rank designation when leaving the military?.

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Thank-you for the welcome.

No sir, I didn't serve in the military.

The OPS-4 monicker is taken from the upper receiver of the first side-charger AR-15 I built. The LAR/Grizzly OPS-4. It's still in the rotation, now a very accurate 6.5 Grendel.

welcome, Im sure you will learn a lot on here about kiwi folk an hunting here and how we interact

Hi, Welcome. To be fair, they did leave bona-fide collectors alone (you can legally collect ANY, and 'as-many' as you want), and left us our .22 semi's, and shotguns, only limiting mag-capacity. Plus you can own as many fine bolt-guns as you like. I expected way-worse, but they did recognise that Nut-jobs-aside, we have very few firearms incidents within the licenced-community...and we have the most firearms per-capita, in the World. ( which may surprise you)..and the best roast-lamb, if you ever-do, get down this way

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Originally Posted by rewa

Hi, Welcome. To be fair, they did leave bona-fide collectors alone (you can legally collect ANY, and 'as-many' as you want), and left us our .22 semi's, and shotguns, only limiting mag-capacity. Plus you can own as many fine bolt-guns as you like. I expected way-worse, but they did recognise that Nut-jobs-aside, we have very few firearms incidents within the licenced-community...and we have the most firearms per-capita, in the World. ( which may surprise you)..and the best roast-lamb, if you ever-do, get down this way

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Hi @rewa.
Is the law clear on what makes one a bona fide collector?

I'm glad they've left the .22s alone. Plinking is good for the soul. I've got a light stock Marlin 795 with a 4x scope that I absolutely love. Lightweight (< 5lbs with scope) and great accuracy for the barrel length. ProMAg makes a very good 25 round stick magazine for it and a terrible 70 rounder. Terrible implementation - like a plastic a frying pan hanging out the mag well preventing you from using the forestock. Just stupid, even for plinking.

I don't currently own a good bolt-action rifle. I live in an area where the typical shooting range is 100 yards and I've been putting off getting one until I can justify the purchase with longer ranges and some real hunting. I've had my eye on a Bergara B-14 HMR, but can't jinn up a rationalization for buying it the wife would believe. Of course, it would need decent glass and that's even more $$$$. Then there's caliber choice. I'd love a 6mm or 6.5 Creedmoor, but those calibers would only make $ sense if I reloaded for it...

NZ has a very large number of registered firearms per capita. The US has nearly as many unregistered guns as people: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estima...ita_by_country. which is fine with us because historically registration ultimately leads to confiscation.

What sucks is that NZ's firearm safety record and relatively high gun ownership didn't mean a thing to the grabbers when they took the semis. From what I've read, cooler heads in your parliament have historically been able to fend off political moves to further restrict firearm ownership. But politics is full of opportunists and they never let a crisis go to waste. That's one of the reasons we in the US are so rabid about pushing back on common sense™ gun laws. The grabbers will always complain how things could be safer and so will always bring new restrictions until, ultimately, they take them all. In short, they aren't about common sense or safety. They are out to disarm us. Period.

My daughter loved the cuisine while she was in NZ and mentioned the lamb was quite good. Best I've been able to muster here is a decent rack on a bed of garlic mashed potatoes. :thumbsup: