The pistols, which were 3D-printed replicas made of plastic, were part of display stands given by Patel to at least three senior security officers in New Zealand during his visit in July.

Patel, the highest-ranking official from the Trump administration to visit the country to date, was in Wellington to inaugurate the FBI’s first independent office in New Zealand.

Pistols are tightly restricted weapons under New Zealand law and possessing one requires an additional permit beyond a regular gun licence.

Law enforcement did not disclose whether the officials who received the gifts had permits, but they would not be allowed to legally keep them without such permits.

It is unclear what permissions Patel had obtained to bring these items into the country. A representative for Patel informed the AP on Tuesday that the FBI would not be providing any comments.

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.

Gun regulators assessed the pistols as potentially operable, leading to their destruction, as stated by New Zealand’s Police Commissioner Richard Chambers in a statement on Tuesday to the AP.

Chambers did not clarify how the pistols were rendered inoperable before being gifted by Patel. Typically, such a process involves temporarily disabling the gun’s firing mechanism.

Three of New Zealand’s most powerful law enforcement figures said they received the gifts at meetings 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 Clark, Director-General of the technical intelligence agency GCSB, according to a joint statement from their departments.

A spokesperson for the spy agencies described the gift as “a challenge coin display stand” that included the 3D-printed inoperable weapon “as part of the design.” The officials sought advice on the gifts the next day from the regulator that enforces New Zealand’s gun laws, Chambers said.

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 said.

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 criticised Patel’s appointment.

But Davidson said 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 simply rendered the replica inoperable,” he said.

New Zealand has strong gun controls

3D-printed weapons are treated the same as other guns in New Zealand. The country bolstered its gun restrictions following a 2019 white supremacist attack on two mosques in the city of Christchurch, when 51 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 culture 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 many 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 public until it had already happened.

An FBI statement in July said 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 2017, the statement said.

Public records disclosed to local news outlets this month revealed that Patel met with and dined with a more than a dozen senior public servants and elected officials, including Cabinet ministers, during his visit. It wasn’t immediately clear on Tuesday how many officials 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 officials in Wellington, who said the bolstered FBI presence was primarily to collaborate on child exploitation and drug smuggling crimes. Beijing decried Patel’s remarks.