[calex59]

The squad arrived to examine the container's contents about 6pm. An initial police assessment had found the grenades and mortars, while appearing to be authentic weapons, were most likely imitations, while the .50 calibre rounds were real but the working components of the bullets had been removed and the caps replaced. Other suspicious items, including an "unusual" collection of knives, were found in the container.

In other words they found a bunch of dummy look alikes(they aren't weapons if they don't work) that they are now calling real weapons so as not to confuse the good people of New Zealand.

[bruinbirdman]

"dummy look alikes(they aren't weapons if they don't work) that they are now calling real weapons so as not to confuse the good people of New Zealand."

I don't know. How about they were a Chinese attempt to supply subsersives?

A pattern of not insignificant proportions seems to have developed where rather terrorist-like evidence is pooh poohed.

"This explosion has been determined to have nothing to do with terrorists. This weapons cache is dummy collectors items. These Mohammedans have been determined to not be terrorists. This airplane's pilot was Islam but just committed suicide. This 747 just blew up in the air, on takeoff, because ....."

yitbos

[cmdjing]

They weren’t dummies. They were real weapons and ammunition. The thing was, is that they had been decommissioned and sold to collectors in New Zealand. Machine guns with cement poured down the barrels, ammunition and grenades with primers and explosives removed, etc. Apparently gun laws are so restrictive so you can only own non-functional weapons in NZ. My guess is some small mom-pop sun store owner imported them and was a bit sloppy with the paperwork.