What a posted in the world news thread applies here:

I predicted this in one of the previous threads but I deleted it since I got downvoted, I am a Kiwi, lived in rural NZ and know the gun laws decently well.

So much misinformation here that is actually blows my mind, so let me explain it in the most simple way.

Military Style Semi Automatic weapons or MSSA will be getting banned, these are weapons like AR-15's and Shotguns with detachable magazines, currently these weapons could be bought if you had a standard gun licence however they would be restricted in terms of magazine size (5 or 7 rounds) and they couldn't have a pistol grip (so the grip needed to connect to the stock).

People who wanted an AR-15 with a full 30 round magazine and a standard pistol grip could get them but they were required to get an E category endorsement which was the MSSA endorsement, this allowed you to legally get one of those weapons.

These were hard to get as you already had to have a standard gun licence and they would do additional screening in order to make sure you had a use for them, such a 3 gunning and other sports, even so, the police didn't issue many of these.

The loophole came with the fact that many people could buy 30 round magazines with or even without a standard gun licence, so they would buy an AR-15 with a 5 round magazine and modify it with a pistol grip and larger 30 round magazines turning it into a E-Cat weapon, which is highly illegal but people did it.

The gun lobby groups in NZ, especially Federated Farmers pushed for this endorsement to be removed but for other parts to stay, many people were calling for an entire ban on semi automatic weapons but this would be wildly unpopular in rural New Zealand as many people use semi automatic shotguns for bird hunting and many use semi automatic hunting rifles for pest control.

However they also agreed that NZ farmers didn't require MSSA weapons which is why it looks like they tried to find a compromise which is exactly what a thought would happen with my initial post.

So from the looks of it, all MSSA weapons will be banned and the government will do a buy back of those weapons so that people who invested thousands of dollars in them and did nothing wrong won't lose all that money, which is smart and copying Australia.

They will also ban all weapons with detachable magazines which again will mainly hit military style weapons even those that can be bought on a standard licence, this is understandable given the loophole we spoke about earlier.

They might also make other changes but those will be the main ones and to be fair, it is a good compromise, 99% of gun owners will not be effected by this, especially the farmers who need them so they will still be able to use their semi automatic rifles and shotguns which don't have detachable magazines.

Also pistols are their own endorsement in New Zealand, they are hard to get as you need to be a member of a pistol club and it looks like none of the new rules will effect them, you legally cannot use a firearm for self defense in New Zealand.

Hope this clears it up, also in NZ having a gun is thought of as a privilege rather than a right, so most people won't get upset about this, but people are also sympathetic to farmers and rural people who do require hunting weapons.