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Inactivated pistols gifted by FBI director Kash Patel The revolvers were inspired by toy Nerf guns and were popular among amateur 3D-printed weapons enthusiasts, documents obtained by The Associated Press show that senior New Zealand security officials were forced to release them for destruction when they found them illegal to possess.
The AP first reported that Patel gifted the plastic 3D-printed replica revolver as part of a display stand given to two cabinet ministers as well as New Zealand’s police and spy chiefs in July. Police documents released this week identified the model as the Maverick PG22, a working revolver based on the brightly colored toy gun of the same name.
Handguns are strictly prohibited under New Zealand law, requiring permits beyond the standard gun license. Law enforcement agencies did not say whether the officers who met Patel had such permits, but without them they could not legally possess the gifts.
After officers surrendered the revolvers, emails between police leaders and firearms experts confirmed that the gifts met the legal definition of firearms under New Zealand’s strict laws. In New Zealand, 3D-printed weapons are treated the same as other guns.
Patel, occupying the highest position trump Administration officials were on a tour of New Zealand Wellington To open the first standalone FBI office in the country. A spokesperson for Patel did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.
Expert said guns can be easily fired
In New Zealand, inert weapons are considered functional if they can be made operable with modifications. In August, a few days after Patel’s visit, police armory team leader Daniel Miller emailed his bosses to explain how easy it would be to make the guns operable.
“These procedures are very straightforward procedures and require minimal skill and common ‘handyperson’ tools,” Miller wrote. He stated that these tools were “a battery drill and a drill bit for the hole and a small screw for the firing pin.”
New Zealand’s police union said in February that the Maverick PG22 was one of the most common 3D-printed guns seized by officers. Miller wrote that his team requested to keep one of the revolvers for testing, but the Police Commissioner denied the request and the guns were destroyed on September 25.
“The first risk is that it could be made viable and it gets into the hands of the wrong person and is used for crime,” said Professor Alexander Gillespie, a lecturer in firearms regulation at the University of Waikato in New Zealand. “The other risk is that it just explodes because it’s not really safe. There’s a reason these are built in people’s backyards rather than coming from an armory.”
The online instructions for building the Maverick PG22 state that it “does not have appropriate modern safety features and should be used in a controlled environment.” It is unclear who manufactured Patel’s guns, which Miller wrote were “manufactured to a high standard.”
5 officers found guns
New Zealand’s three top law enforcement officials said they received the gifts on July 31. Chambers was one recipient, and the other two were Andrew Hampton, director general of the country’s human intelligence agency NZSIS, and Andrew Clarke, director general of the technical intelligence agency GCSB.
Police Minister Mark Mitchell and Judith Collins, who oversees the military and spy agencies, also received revolvers during meetings with Patel. All five officers voluntarily surrendered their guns.
New Zealand police declined the AP’s public records request for photographs of the guns on the grounds that “release of the requested images would be likely to adversely affect New Zealand’s relations with the United States.”
Pictures and instructions for building the Maverick PG22 are available online. Police did not explain why releasing photos of a US official’s gifts to his New Zealand counterparts might damage relations.
New Zealand has strong gun control
New Zealand increased its gun restrictions after a 2019 white supremacist attack on two mosques in the city of Christchurch. An Australian man, who had legally acquired a cache of semiautomatic weapons, shot and killed 51 Muslim worshipers during Friday prayers.
The guns that Patel gifted to law enforcement chiefs were not semiautomatic models, which are now banned after the Christchurch massacre. But there are a number of other reasons why New Zealanders are not legally allowed to possess certain weapons, including specific pistol permits.
New Zealand does not have an enthusiastic gun ownership culture and weapons are viewed more bleakly since the mass shootings. Gun ownership is enshrined in New Zealand law as a privilege, not a right.
There is no shortage of guns in the country and their use for pest control is common in rural areas. But violent gun crime is rare and many urban residents may never have seen a gun in person.
It is also unusual to see police officers carrying weapons. Front-line officers are usually not armed on patrol and leave their weapons locked in their vehicles.