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

  • By CHARLOTTE GRAHAM-McLAY and JIM MUSTIAN Associated Press

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. The plastic 3D-printed replica pistols were presented during Patel's visit in July to open the FBI's first standalone office in New Zealand. The country's law enforcement agencies told The Associated Press about the gifts and why they were illegal to possess Tuesday. New Zealand law treats inoperable weapons as operable if they can be modified to work, and regulators deemed these operable. The FBI declined to comment.