New Zealand’s banned gun confiscation program has been a rolling dumpster fire since Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern rammed the law through following last year’s mosque shootings in Christchurch.
The “buyback” became a national joke, marked by pathetically low participation rates and police begging gang members to please turn in their guns.
Now, according to the UK’s Guardian, the government’s website designed to track confiscated firearms has been breached exposing the personal information of thousands of gun owners.
The error became public on Monday when a gun lobby group said it had spoken to 15 people who were able to access information on a website where firearms owners registered weapons to be relinquished. It included their names, addresses, dates of birth, firearms licence numbers and bank account details, the group said.
“It’s a shopping list for criminals,” said Nicole McKee, from the Council of Licensed Firearms Owners. She added that gun owners who had not turned in their weapons were “now being told they have to comply with a system that cannot be trusted”.
There’s apparently no truth to the rumor that the Kiwi government used the same contractor to build their buggy system that the Obama administration used to cobble together the Obamacare website.
On Monday New Zealand’s deputy police commissioner, Mike Clement, said an update on the buyback scheme’s website last week had caused personal information to be revealed more widely than it should have been. He blamed the software provider, the German company SAP, for what he called “human error”.
The site was custom-built for the gun buyback.
The good news is this has been an important learning experience for the national police.
“This is a timely reminder to us all that we have to be particularly secure with people’s personal information,” [deputy police commissioner, Mike Clement] said, adding that the police had not done anything wrong either.
The government has shut the system down until they can figure out exactly what the hell went wrong. And the worst part is this whole situation has been really tough on the people at the top.
“We’re pretty disappointed about this,” the police minister, Stuart Nash, said. He would wait until he learned more about what had happened before he commented on whether anyone should be censured.
“This is a timely reminder to us all that we have to be particularly secure with people’s personal information,…”
****
Or maybe not collect that info at all in the first place? The absence of gun registration seemed to work just fine in NZ for a long time. This is what happens when the Gov’t thinks it “has to do something, anything” and rushes an unnecessary program into place.
I’ll keep my guns unregistered, thankyouverymuch & kthxbai.
Funny how simply not collecting the data never seems to be an option.
Anyone recall the TTAG debacle that exposed all of our email addresses a few years ago?
Sure, you can sell email addresses, you can count them toward marketing and ad placement fees but in the end the only real way to keep databases safe from attack or leaks is to not have that database in the first place.
Well, since the ‘notify me of follow-up comments’ function has never worked, I just use a junk email address. If I knew I was going to get notifications, I might rethink that, but until then…
If I’m asked my response will be, “What guns”?
“I’ll keep my guns unregistered, thankyouverymuch & kthxbai.”
Just wait until we start hearing how the public “Has a right to know” where those dangerous guns are, and they start setting up websites like the popular sex offender sites that show on a map where they are…
Any bets the system was either built by the lowest bidder or someone’s preferred contractor.
Its a feature, not a bug.
Gee, who woulda thunk that would happen!? Sure Bloomberg’s got a better idea, though.
You have to wonder if these utopian culture socialists have a brain disorder. They want power but when they get it , all they manage to do is screw everything up.
Human error yup screwed up from beginning, bad law, no compliance, or little. And if anyone believes it was unintentional, got a seven wheel tricycle for sale only used by Granny in Pasadena for church, good price eleventy-seventeen billion dollars.
My offer to all the Democrat wannabes who keep talking about gun buybacks, and to Bloomberg who wants to buy the nomination, still stands.
My guns and my vote are for sale. The price, which is not open to negotiation, is this: ALL THE MONEY YOU HAVE. Give it all to me, all eleventy-billion bucks between you and your super-pac, and I’ll give up my stuff *and* vote for you on election day.
So far there are no takers. I wonder why that is…
Why would a gun registry need to include bank account information?
They probably send you your “buyback” payment via direct deposit. Can’t trust the police with cash.
Oh wow. I didn’t notice that until your comment, and then re-reading the article. Bank account details, indeed.
BTW, notice that the Kiwis spell individual licence with a “c”, but they have an official Council of Licensed Firearms Owners that spells it with an “s”? My OCD just kicked in. First they botch gun control, and now they mangle Engrish.
Licence = noun. “I have a driver’s licence”
License = verb. “007, I license you to kill this mofo.
The wonderful vagueries of the English language.
A few years ago, we had two couples over for dinner. One set were Brits, and the other were Aussies. Throughout the course of the conversations, we learned that the same English word can have different meanings across different continents:
U.S.A. “rubber” = condom
Britain “rubber” = pencil eraser
Australia “rubber” = disposable shaver
Too bad we didn’t have South Africa, the Netherlands, Canada, and Hobbiton represented at the table to discover their own explanations. And before you ask…I don’t recall how the word “rubber” came up.
“Australia “rubber” = disposable shaver”
And an Aussie auto-body repair shop is a “Panel Beater”…
They also don’t eat shrimp in OZ, they throw a prawn on the barbie, coolers are eskies, aluminum boats are tinnies, sausages are snags, etc. Maybe even more than the British we are two peoples separated by a common language.
You’ve never heard New Zealanders talk. Only the Scots and Welsh mangle the English language more than the Kiwis.
NZ natives speak Encomprehensiblish, and practically every time I’ve had to pass through Auckland or Wellington the Maori baggage handlers seem to be trying out for the All Blacks with individual pieces of luggage.
Brits, Americans, Aussies, Kiwis, Canadians… all separated by a common language.
Billy Bob
The bank account is so they can send you money in I think six weeks. Another reason the bans are so unpopular when I was in New Zealand earlier this year. Plus deliberately under valuing many firearms. So very low compliance. 18% was the last figure I saw
Australia paid on the spot by cheque. Many of these were cashed at the local gun shop.
Sounds like the bludgers in the NZ government need the six weeks to borrow the money from Australia.
Sheesh, that face. Obviously the PM wasn’t available for comment as she was running in the third race that day. Won by a nose.
I lol’ed
With a mug like that, she would look right at home next to Joy B on The View. What a HAG!
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what James Campbell thinks.
He has spoken.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is Gusty McGusterson pointing out what James Campbell thinks.
He has pointed out my post.
Thanks Gusty.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, shows that James Campbell can’t spell others’ names correctly.
Hey half wit!
I intentionally spell it that way because you’re full of hot air, and always blowing it around TTAG.
Did you used to ride the short bus to school?
Isn’t that the guy from Aerosmith?
Jacinda Arden looks like Momo. Do a Google Image search. And drink plenty of brain bleach to get the image out of your brain.
She is one fugly skank.
“And the worst part is this whole situation has been really tough on the people at the top.”
NZ confiscates peoples firearms, allows all manner of personal information to be visible at great risk and prepares to make criminals of persons that do not comply with their Tyranny. Yet, they want “sympathy” for the for that Tyrannical Gov! LMFAO!
A other reason to reject registries and lists. They will most likely be compromised and are almost always abused.
…..and if it wasn’t a ‘data breach’, nor a ‘hack’, but a deliberate – nudge – double-secret probation side door purposeful release of all that quite specific information on owners of items that strike fear into the hearts and minds of totalitarian wannabes ?
Please remember, it’s not paranoia if “they” are indeed out to get you.
Seems to me a pro gun hacker would do this to scare people off registering. Now they know how incompetent and loose these guys are with their info.
are there any examples of prog activists in local govt leaking a list of CCWs/CHPs?
Westchester county ny pistol permit holders were outted in new article. Some famous people too.
Got a link?
It will be *hilarious* if some of those ‘famous’ folks are big-time ‘gun safety’ Leftists…
We need the Democrats to do something so stupid and potentially dangerous that the good ones form another party, something like introducing. an amendment to eliminate the electoral college and see how many states want to surrender more of their power and influence. Could we teach them a lesson by getting their personal information released to show the dangers of central location registration systems?
Your generous thoughts are, unfortunately, wasted on the libritards. You can’t fix stupid.
Travel back In time and kill them at birth….By the way I’m not suggesting ANYONE travel back In time to kill stupid people, that would be politically Incorrect and make me an accessory to murder…….So just do whatever those voice’s In you’re head are telling you and leave me out of It, none of my business.
“Travel back In time and kill them at birth….”
Easy to do, authorize government money to pay for abortions. Since Leftists are more apt to abort, those never born can’t get on voting registries… 😉
“We’re pretty disappointed about this,” the police minister, Stuart Nash, said. He would wait until he learned more about what had happened before he commented on whether anyone should be censured”
Well golly they are disappointed. So sad. And that censoring sound pretty harsh too. Maybe a strong tongue lashing is in order.
What morons.
WOW! This whole article is such a hoot. First you have Mr Ed’s love child, she is ug-ly! Then you have the story “What could have gone wrong?” Well the government to start with. Then you have the dopey police chief commissioner, looks like he was just forced into having relations with old horse face. Could it get any worse? Sure, I await the next episode of “Horse Face and the Land of Sheeple”!
There really IS a horse face named ‘Horsey McHorseface’:
https://fancredsports.com/Articles/an-australian-thoroughbred-named-horsey-mchorseface-won-a-real-honest-to-goodness-race
True, but he/she is actually a horse, and is still better looking the the NZ Horse face!
Put him up for Prime Minister of NZ when the next election comes up. Campaign slogan: “Keep New Zealand Beautiful”.
The left would love for that to happen here.
Imagine if they knew who had machine guns and other NFA items…
Police Minister Nash looks an aweful lot like Mr Bean, which would be pretty fitting considering their current situation. Lol!
Probably an expat from the gun-free and crime-free utopia of Great Britain showing the colonials how things should be done.
And this is another reason you can never give women political power.
This is why you can’t have women in positions of power. Just as a female monarch led to the destruction of the British Empire, the Jacinda Occupational Government (JOG) will lead to the destruction of NZ.
Women must not be allowed to vote. They should be restricted from the corporate world.
#repeal19
#supportnra
#supportwayne
#timothy212
This guy wins trolling. Haven’t laughed that hard in a while. JOG??!? Lol
But maybe he has a point. Women don’t belong in positions of power. I want my daughter to be a mom, not a CEO scheduling in IVF treatments. (IVF is murder, btw)
I searched the Internet and couldn’t find source material for your assertion about female monarchs. Please provide a link as I am very curious and want to read up on it. Thanks!
It’s slightly unclear if women in power are a cause or an effect of a dying civilization.
Either way #repealthe19th.
Who’s the dude in drag?
Fortunately for some in the U.S.. They purchased firearms back in the day before any registration. Mostly long guns and shotguns, which still are effective in the pursuit of Freedom. Many have lost their guns in boating accidents and long forgotten storage units, making them untraceable. While other have been “stolen” with properly(sic) reported paperwork. The pursuit/protection of Freedom has taken many forms over the centuries. Any citizen regardless of country who willingly gives up their freedom. Didn’t deserve it in the first place. Keep Your Powder Dry.
“Accidentally” breached, imposing a burden on gun owners they’d have a hard time legislating or ordering, even after taking the bait when a whack-job dared them to over react.
It’s called “doxxing”, and generall frowned on.
“generally”
Also, Epstein didn’t kill himself.
Jet fuel can melt steel beams.
but…
Israel financed 9/11
“Subjects of the Crown 👑…Royal Vassals…Enough said….”
The article is very easy to understand, detailed and meticulous! I had a lot of harvest after watching this article from you! I find it interesting, your article gave me a new perspective! I have read many other articles on the same topic, but your article convinced me! https://onlinejigsawpuzzles.co
“This is a timely reminder to us all that we have to be particularly secure with people’s personal information,” [deputy police commissioner, Mike Clement] said, adding that the police had not done anything wrong either.
…yes he did.
He sacrificed the safety and security of his citizens and have bought them neither safety nor security.
The police department should have NOT complied with the government and instead forced an immediate election for a new prime minister.
….if necessary at the barrel of a gun.
Your sharing is of great help to my work. I have learned a lot from this article of yours.