FBI boss Kash Patel gave New Zealand officials 3D-printed guns illegal to possess under local laws

WELLINGTON New Zealand AP On a visit to New Zealand FBI Director Kash Patel gave the country s police and spy bosses gifts of inoperable pistols that were illegal to possess under local gun laws and had to be destroyed New Zealand law enforcement agencies notified The Associated Press The plastic D-printed replica pistols formed part of display stands Patel presented to at least three senior New Zealand defense personnel in July Patel the greater part senior Trump administration official to visit the country so far was in Wellington to open the FBI s first standalone office in New Zealand Pistols are tightly restricted weapons under New Zealand law and possessing one requires an additional permit beyond a regular gun license Law enforcement agencies didn t specify whether the leaders who met with Patel held such permits but they couldn t have legally kept the gifts if they didn t It wasn t clear what permissions Patel had sought to bring the weapons into the country A spokesperson for Patel explained the AP Tuesday that the FBI would not comment The pistols were surrendered and destroyed Inoperable weapons are treated as though they re operable in New Zealand if modifications could make them workable again The pistols were judged by gun regulators to be potentially operable and were destroyed New Zealand s Police Commissioner Richard Chambers reported AP in a message Tuesday Chambers didn t specify how the weapons had been rendered inoperable before Patel gifted them Usually this means the temporary disabling of the gun s firing mechanism Three of New Zealand s largest part powerful law enforcement figures revealed they received the gifts at meetings July Chambers was one recipient and the other two were Andrew Hampton Director-General of the country s human intelligence agency NZSIS and Andrew Clark Director-General of the technical intelligence agency GCSB according to a joint message from their departments A spokesperson for the spy agencies described the gift as a challenge coin display stand that included the D-printed inoperable weapon as part of the design The officers sought advice on the gifts the next day from the regulator that enforces New Zealand s gun laws Chambers stated When the weapons were examined it was discovered they were potentially operable To ensure compliance with firearms laws I instructed Police to retain and destroy them Chambers disclosed James Davidson a former FBI agent who is now president of the FBI Integrity Project a nonprofit that seeks to safeguard the bureau from undue partisan influence has criticized Patel s appointment But Davidson disclosed the gift of the replica pistols appeared a genuine gesture from Patel and their destruction was quite frankly an overreaction by the NZSIS which could have purely rendered the replica inoperable he disclosed New Zealand has strong gun controls D-printed weapons are treated the same as other guns in New Zealand The country bolstered its gun restrictions following a white supremacist attack on two mosques in the city of Christchurch when Muslim worshipers were shot dead by an Australian man who had amassed a cache of semiautomatic weapons legally The guns Patel gifted to the law enforcement chiefs were not semiautomatic models now prohibited after the Christchurch massacre But there are a suite of other reasons New Zealanders might not legally be able to possess certain weapons including the specific permits required for pistols New Zealand doesn t have a passionate lifestyle of gun ownership and the weapons have been viewed more dimly since the mass shooting Gun ownership is enshrined in New Zealand law as a privilege not a right The country isn t short on guns they re common in rural areas for pest control But violent gun crime is rare and a large number of urban residents might never have even seen a firearm in person It s uncommon even to see police officers carrying weapons Front-line officers aren t usually armed on patrol and leave their weapons locked in their vehicles Patel caused discomfort with China remarks News of Patel s visit caused ripples in New Zealand at the time because the opening of the new FBI field office in Wellington wasn t divulged to news outlets or the inhabitants until it had already happened An FBI declaration in July commented the move aligned New Zealand with FBI missions in other Five Eyes intelligence-sharing nations which also include the United States Australia Canada and the United Kingdom The office would provide a local mission for FBI staff who have operated with oversight from Canberra Australia since the message declared Population records disclosed to local news outlets this month revealed that Patel met with and dined with a more than a dozen senior populace servants and elected bureaucrats including Cabinet ministers during his visit It wasn t instantly clear Tuesday how a large number of agents received the pistols as gifts Patel had already provoked mild diplomatic discomfort in Wellington by suggesting in remarks supplied to reporters that the new FBI office aimed to counter China s influence in the South Pacific Ocean where New Zealand is located The comments prompted polite dismissal from authorities in Wellington who disclosed the bolstered FBI presence was primarily to collaborate on child exploitation and drug smuggling crimes Beijing decried Patel s remarks Mustian shared from New York Associated Press reporter Eric Tucker contributed from Washington Source